c^- , 



b 







Glass 



Book 



YUDIN COLLECTION 



B. KLOTCHKOFF. 

LIBJtAIJRE. 




COLLECTION 



ANCIENT AND MODERN 



BRITISH AUTHORS 



VOL. CXXXIX. 



THE 



LIFE AND ADVENTURES 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW 



PRINTED BY J. SMITH, 16, RUE MONTMORENCY, 



HE 




LIFE AND ADVENTURES 



OF 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAWj 



OR 



SCENES ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 






BY 



FRANCES TROLLOPE, 1 



AUTHOR OF " PARIS AND THE PARISIANS IN 1835, 
" TREMORDYN CLIFF," &c. 




PARIS, 

BAUDRYS EUROPEAN LIBRARY, 

SOLD ALSO BY AMYOT, TlUE DE LA PAIX ; TRL'CHY, BOULEVARD DES 1TALIENS J 

THEOPH1LE BARROIS. JUN., RUE RICHELIEU; L1BRAIRIE DES ETRANGERS, 

RUE NEUVE-SAINT-AUGUSTIiNr ; AND HEIDELOFF AND CAMI'E, 

RUE V1VIENNE. 



1836. 



.ofi 






y 









VC? 




TO THOSE 

STATES OF THE AMERICAN UNION 

IN WHICH fSLAVERY HAS BEEN ABOLISHED, 
OR NEVER PERMITTED, 

THESE VOLUMES 

ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 



THE AUTHOR. 



London, 
27th April, 1836. 




THE 



LIFE AND ADVENTURES 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW, 



CHAPTER I. 

At one of those bold sweeps of the Mississippi river which occa- 
sionally vary Ihe monotony of its scenery by giving to a portion of its 
dark, deep waters the appearance of a lake, may yet be seen the traces 
of what was once — some dozen years ago perhaps— a human habitation. 
The spot is fearfully wild, and possesses no single feature of the sweet, 
heart-cheering beauty which a lover of Nature would select for the em- 
bellishment of his familiar home; yet it is not altogether without in- 
terest, that species of interest, at least, which arises from a vague and 

shadowy outline, and the absence of every object, either of grace or of 
deformity, which might lower by its insignificance the effect of the 
moody grandeur that seems to brood over the almost boundless plain 
through which the father of waters rolls his mighty waves. 

There is in truth an unbroken vaslness in the scenes displayed at 
many points of the Mississippi river that seizes very powerfully on the 
imagination; and though composed for the most part of objects that 
chill and revolt the mind, the combination of them would, I think, de- 
tain the eye for some short space from many a fairer landscape, were 
it possible that such could rise beside it. 

Unwonted to European eyes, and mystically heavy, is the eternal 
gloom that seems settled upon that region. Whatever wind may blow 
— however bright and burning that southern sun may blaze in the un- 
clouded sky, the stream is for ever turbid, and for ever dark, turning 
all that is reflected on its broad breast to its own murky hue, and so 
blending all things into one sad, sombre tint, till the very air seems 
tinged with gray, and Nature looks as if she had put on a suit of mourn- 
ing to do honour to some sad solemnity. Nor can one look long upon 

l 



2 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

the scene without fancying that Nature has indeed some cause to mourn ; 
for at one moment an uprooted forest is seen borne along by the rapid 
flood, its leafy honours half concealed beneath the untransparent wave, 
while its faithless roots mock the air by rearing their unsightly branches 
in their stead. At another, the sullen stillness is interrupted by a blast 
that will rend from the earth her verdant mantle — there her only boast, 
and leave the groaning forest crushed, prostrate, unbarked and un- 
boughed, the very emblem of ruin, desolation, and despair. 

It is perhaps this very perfection of melancholy dreariness which 
creates the interest experienced on viewing the singular scenery of the 
Mississippi. But though one may feel well disposed to linger for a 
moment to gaze on its strange and dismal vastness, it offers little to 
tempt a longer stay. The drowsy alligator, luxuriating on its slimy 
banks, or the unsocial bear, happy in the undisputed possession of its 
tangled thickets, alone seem formed to find prolonged enjoyment there. 

Yet this was the spot selected and chosen, at no very distant period 
of the earth's history, as the abode of a man who nevertheless had all 
the world before him where to choose ; and, what is perhaps more ex- 
traordinary still, he never either regretted his choice, or felt the slightest 
inclination to change his habitation for the space of at least ten years 
after he made it. 

This chosen spot was thenceforward distinguished by the name of 
Mohana Creek ; an appellation borrowed from a deep ravine not a 
hundred yards distant from it, which during the winter and spring 
carried a huge stream of pine-stained water to the river. 

It was indeed this valuable creek which attracted the careful and skil- 
ful eye of Jonathan Whitlaw, and finally led him to select its vicinity 
for the erection of a permanent dwelling for himself and his family. 

What the original cause might have been which induced Mr. Jo- 
nathan Whitlaw to " squatinthe bush," (as the taking possession of any 
heretofore unappropriated land is called in Transatlantic phrase) was 
never, I believe, very clearly understood ; and as the point is not likely 
to be one of much interest to the general reader, I will not delay the 
progress of my narrative by repeating the various conjectures on the 
subject which have reached me : it is sufficient for my purpose to slate, 
that about three o'clock p. m. on a certain Tuesday in the month of 
April 18 — , a very small flat boat, formed of unpainted deals, with 
nothing but a few articles of old household furniture for its cargo, and 
two women, one man, and a dog for its crew, came down the stream, 
and by the aid of its paddles was brought within grappling-reach of the 
bank immediately above Mohana Creek. 

Little and light as was her lading, the boat was deep in the water, 
and the two women had perched themselves with their feet drawn up 
on an old chest, that formed the most substantial part of the cargo, in 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 3 

order to keep themselves out of the water, which a very considerable 
leak was permitting to enter in such abundance as to render the frail 
craft not only very uncomfortable, but very unsafe. 

" By the living Jingo," cried the man, springing on shore, " it is time 
to be smart, or we shall be going down where nobody never comes up. 
Be spry, gals!" he continued, stretching out his hand to assist the dis- 
embarkation of the females : " you hold her fast on with the hook, 
Porlia, till I can grapple her light to a tree; and you, Clio, look sharp 
and fix them notions safe and dry on shore as fast as I can pitch them 
at ye." 

The individual who thus, in the true Columbian style, now planted 
his foot on the land, and thereby look possession of it, was a powerful 
muscular man somewhat past thirty. His features were regular, and 
might have been called handsome, had the expression of his counte- 
nance been less unpleasing; but labour and intemperance had each left 
traces there. 

The women who were his companions appeared both of them to be 
under twenty, and of the very lowest order of society. Their garments 
were scanty and sordid, and they had much the look and air of that 
poorly-paid class known in every manufacturing town in the United 
States as " the gals of the factory." 

Whatever else they might be, however, they seemed to possess one 
excellent feminine quality in perfection, — they were most " obedient 
to command;" and though one of them was very evidently in a state 
which rendered her little fit for hard work, they both of them readily 
and actively performed the task allotted to them, till the boat was 
disembarrassed of all the load she had carried, save the water — and 
that was visibly increasing upon her rapidly. 

" It don't signify thinking of anything else/' observed Mr. Jonathan 
Whitlaw, " till I have saved them elegant sawed planks. Wood is 
plenty enough, and to spare, no doubt ; but sawing is sawing all the 
world over, so you must jest wait a spell, gals, till I'm ready to fix 
you : and if you will but bide clever a bit, and say not a word till I 
bid you, why then I'll set to fix you and all your notions about you 
outright, as slick as may be." 

A goodly axe being part of the treasure landed, it required but a few 
minutes to demolish the frail vessel, and deposit her timbers on the 
bank. This done, Jonathan Whitlaw turned to his wife and his sister, 
nothing dismayed, as it should seem, at the apparent impossibility of 
leaving the dreary spot on which they stood ; and having filled tho 
hollow of his left cheek with tobacco, and settled himself in his ill- 
fitting attire with sundry of those jerks and tugs incomprehensible to 
all who have not looked at the natives of the New World face to face, 
he thus again addressed them : 

I* 



4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

44 Well, now, (his is what I call a right-down elegant location. 
D'ye comprehend the privilege of that handsome creek, gals? Maybe 
you don't, and maybe I do. Mind now what I say : if that creek 
don't prove as good as a dozen axes, say my name's not Jonathan." 
" My!" — exclaimed the matronly Portia, drawing her thin shawl 
more tightly round her; for the April sun, though it had almost 
scorched them on the river, could not prevent the deep, dank shade 
of the spot from sending a cold shiver through her limbs. "Well, 
now, Jonathan, but that will be considerable convenient anyhow." 

"I expect so," replied the man. folding his arms, and turning 
himself slowly round to every point of the compass to ascertain the 
capabilities of the spot for the "improvements" he meditated. "I 
expect so," he repeated with an absent air, as if his faculties were 
wholly absorbed by the examination he was making. 

To an unpractised eye, a single glance might have seemed sufficient 
to discover everything that the desolate spot had to show. Before 
Ihem spread the mighty mass of muddy waters, bounded, as it seemed, 
on all sides by the malted foliage of the level forest, above whose un- 
varied line sprang the high arch of heaven. Beneath their feet was 
a boggish, peat-like soil, that looked as if occasionally it might itself 
become a part of the swollen river's bed. Around them rose innu- 
merable tall, slender trees, between whose stems the eye could not 
penetrate two hundred yards in any direction, so thickly was the 
ground covered with an undergrowth of bear-brake and reeds. 

To an unpractised eye, one glance would have been enough, and loo 
much, to show all that could there be seen ; unless the next might have 
discovered a friendly bark upon that muddy stream, which might have 
borne the gazer from it for ever. 

But with Jonathan Whillaw the case was very different. Not a 
stem, not a stick, not a reed, not a hollow half filled with stagnant 
water, nor a crevice that might facilitate its escape, but was examined 
with as much earnest attention, and reasoned upon with as much 
provident wisdom as might suffice to decide the locality of a palace. 

The women meanwhile again seated themselves on the chest which 
had done them such good service in the boat, and for a lime sat si- 
lently watching the master of their destiny as he meditated in the 
secret council-chamber of his own breast the plans on which it hung. 
A low whispering then commenced between them, the result of which 
was a half-timid, half-coaxing attempt on the part of Clio, the bolder 
spirited of the two, to draw his attention from the future to the pre- 
sent. 

11 I say, Bub," she began, "I say, — do you know that Porchy and 
I are right down dead almost for summet to eat? I can get at the bag 
with the corn-cakes in no lime. Shall I, Jonathan?" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 5 

Jonathan turned his quid of tobacco deliberately from one cheek to 
the other, and then replied, 

" I'll tell you what it is, sis, — we are here — no matter why, — 
Perhaps 'lis because I happen to like this here part of the country best 
— but at any rale here we be, and I can tell you that here we must 
bide — but as to spending our days in nothing but eating, it's what 
I'm not provided for. Now look you, both of you, and I'll tell you 
the case at once. The nearest town to this here bit is Natchez, and I 
calculate that is not over nigh for a walk through the bush, seeing it 
can't be much less than twenty miles right a-head. I won't say that 
we can't buy a bushel of corn-meal no nigher, but I won't say that we 
can ; but this I will say, that near or far, we shan't never get it at all 
without having the Spanish wheels ready, I expect; and concerning 
that commodity I'll tell you no lies, — I have got no more of it than a 
mouse might carry easy at full trot. But, however, there stands the 
meal-tub chock lull, and dry as a ripe tassel, — I look care of that. 
And here's five gallons of whisky, and there's my axe, and here's 
my arms," baring them as he spoke to the shoulder. "So be good 
gals, and I'll fix a palace for you ; but don't be for everlasting talking 
of ealing, jost in the beginning, — I shall be wralhy enough if you do, 
I tell you that : so mind and say no more about it, but each of you 
take a drop with me, and you'll be after helping me build in no lime." 
With a celerity which showed the effect of habit, Jonathan Whitlaw 
produced a horn from his pocket, and skiWully applying it to the lillle 
cask, drew forth what he considered as a fitting portion for each, and 
presented it in succession to the two females. This generous and gal- 
lant office performed, he swallowed a treble dose himself, and instantly 
set to work. 

His prophecy was speedily fulfilled — the poisonous inspiration did 
its work, and under its feverish influence the young women dragged 
and pulled, and pushed and carried, according to his orders, with a 
degree of strength and perseverance greatly beyond what their age and 
appearance promised. 

The increase of vigour which he had himself acquired from the 
draught showed itself not only in the activity with which he laboured, 
but by a more than ordinary degree of loquacity — a part of which may 
serve to explain his future plans. 

" This here tree must come down smack — and them there three 
small ones into the bargain ; then this one, and that one, and they two 
t'olhers, shall have their heads and branches cut off slick ; and there's 
the four corners of the house as clean as a whistle, and we must roll up 
the logs round them. I say, gals, don't I know the river? I expect 
this will prove the most profitable privilege of a wooding-station of any 
'twixt New Orlines and Cincinnati. What with that there elegant 



6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

creek , and this here handsome elevation (the spot selected for his house was 
at this lime at least six or seven inches above the level of the river) ; and 
what with them there capital hickories, and this dreadful beautiful 
sweep in of the river, that will bring the steamers up to me whether 
they will or no ; — I say, gals, that if things do but go on at New Orlines 
as bravely as they do now, I'll make dollars enough, by wooding their 
boats for 'em, to open a store for all the notions in creation at Natchez, 
before ten years are out. Why, since we've landed I've see half a 
dozen first-rate timbers shoot the creek; but I'll soon see if I can't 
find a way to stop 'em short, as soon as I've got a pair of hands to 
spare." 

While his tongue was thus active, however, the hands he talked of 
w T ere by no means idle. The rapidity and apparent ease with which 
trees were felled, and the allotted space cleared, might have been mis- 
taken for an effort of more than mortal skill by any but a back-woods- 
man. What was to Jonathan Whitlaw the work of one stroke of the 
axe, would to any unused to the mystery have required a dozen ; and 
where the unskilled would have raised the instrument on high, and 
brought its edge and weight to bear with a violent exertion of strength, 
he achieved the object with an easy dexterity, which seemed not to 
require one half the power that the brawny arm which w ielded the axe 
could well have bestowed had it been needed. 

Notwithstanding all that skill and perseverance could do, how r ever, 
the sturdy woodsman and his tottering assistants were overtaken by 
darkness ere they had completed such a shelter as might permit them 
to sleep securely on the spot they had chosen. 

A shed on the banks of the Mississippi, twenty miles above Natchez, 
may now perhaps be considered as tolerably secure, except from the 
occasional visits of an exploring bear, or the rambling propensities of 
an hungry alligator : but in the year 18 — it was much less so; and as 
the leaden gloom of the short twilight settled upon the woods, the bold 
squatter was fain to suspend his labour, with no better comfort for his 
weary companions than a confession that, after all, they should not be 
able to get a spell of sleep except turn and turn about, because they 
might be waked by the varment, with half a leg eaten off, before they 
had done dreaming. 

" I expect I must die then, Jonathan," said the poor young wife, in 
a voice so feeble as somewhat to alarm her companions, — " I expect I 
must die before morning." 

" You a back-w r ood man's lady, Porchy," said her husband, ap- 
proaching her, " and talk of dying the first night that you gets to the 
bush! Come come, gal, no faints, or my dander will be up pretty 
considerable. Here, Cli, shake down the straw bed upon that there 
lot of boughs, and give her that sack of notions for her head, and she 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 7 

will be fast and snoring in no time; and then you and I will be after 
kindling an elegant blaze to scare'them devils the varment — bears, 
painters, wolves, alligators, and all." 

Poor Clio promptly set about performing this new task, and with 
much tenderness assisted the over-worn young wife to lay herself as 
much at her ease as her rude couch might permit : but while thus en- 
gaged, another whisper was exchanged between the sisters, which 
produced exactly the same petition as the former one, some five or six 
hours before. 

" But I say, Bub, — I expect Porchy will never sleep a wink unless 
you give her a morsel to eat first." 

" One word for Porchy, and two for yourself, eh, Cli? Howsom- 
ever, you have been considerable good gals both of ye ; so you shan't ax 
for nothing, this time." 

If the hungry Clio was alert before, she now became doubly so, as 
she sought and found the bag containing the treasured corn-cakes. 

" Well now ! — wouldn't a herring grilled over a handful of slicks 
be first-rate?" said the poor girl coaxingly, and holding up the tempt- 
ing morsel she had found, before the eyes of her brother. 

" Why, I can't say but what I expect it would be eatable," replied 
the autocrat, producing flint and steel; " so pick up your sticks, Cli, 
and set about it." 

With zealous activity, the now happy Clio prepared to obey the 
welcome mandate, and showed almost as much skill and dexterity in 
selecting and kindling the boughs which lay scattered round her, as 
her brother had done in strewing them. 

In a few minutes a thick column of smoke rose through the still air, 
the faggots crackled, and the herring, as it hung suspended over the 
flame from the ingenious machine erected for it, sent forth an odour so 
powerful and enticing, that when it reached the nostrils of the half- 
famished Portia, she rose with renovated strength, and approached the 
manifold comforts of the blazing fire. The three weary and hungry 
wanderers then sat down around it, and devoured their repast with as 
great a degree of enjoyment as it is possible for the act of eating to 
bestow; and even the dog, though in general expected to provide his own 
meals, was not forgotten. To complete the luxury of the banquet, 
Jonathan dipped their one precious iron crock into the muddiest but 
sweetest of streams, and having boiled it, permitted the ladies, in com- 
pliance with the delicacy of their ordinary habits, to mix it, in the pro- 
portion of half and half, with the one and only liquid which he deemed 
worthy to enter the lips of a free-born man. In his own case, there- 
fore, he suffered not the vital stream from his beloved whisky-keg to 
be contaminated by the admixture of any alloying Mississippi whatever ; 



8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

and the portion he permitted himself to swallow was, as he said, in 
just proportion to the work he had done. 

The repast ended, the weary Portia once more stretched herself 
upon herwelcome bed of straw; while her companions were employed, 
first, in removing the thickly-scattered branches from the immediate 
neighbourhood of the fire, to guard against that most fatal of forest dis- 
asters, a conflagration amongst thick underwood, where there is no 
outlet for escape ; and then in collecting together, at safe distance, such 
a quantity of them as might supply their watch-fire during the night. 
This done, the residue of Ihe corn-cakes carefully lied up and slung 
upon a bough, and the invaluable crock as scrupulously attended to as 
if it had been a silver casserole, the gracious Jonathan told his yawn- 
ing sister that she loo might lay herself down beside his sleeping wife ; 
adding, that when daylight came, he would wake them bolh, and turn 
in to lake a spell himself. 

; In less than five minutes Clio was as deeply asleep as her friend 
Portia ; and Jonathan, seated on the hearlh with his dog beside him, 
and supporting his back against a tree, prepared lo endure his weary 
watch, which Ihe low long howl of wolves in Ihe distance already showed 
to be no unnecessary precaution ; and so strong is Ihe instinct of self- 
preservation, that the uniled intluence of labour and whisky failed to 
overpower the feeling which kept the aching eyes of the wanderer open 
through the long hours of that painful night. 

However miserable beyond endurance the fatigues and privations 
above described may appear to the European reader, they form no ex- 
aggerated picture of that tremendous enterprise, the first "settling in 
the bush" on the Mississipi, at the period at which my tale commences. 
The undertaking is even now one bolh of danger and difficulty ; though 
bolh are greatly lessened by the comparatively near neighbourhood lhat 
the new settler is likely to find, let him place himself at what point of Ihe 
river he may, below its junction with the Ohio. Whenever a new 
squatter arrives, it is now the custom for about a dozen of the nearest 
residents lo assemble at the spot he has chosen, for the purpose of as- 
sisting him to rear his log-hut; the only payment expected for this 
timely service being a " pretty considerable" allowance of whisky, to 
be socially swallowed before the party separates : so that il generally 
happens lhat the first sleep taken by the stranger in his new abode is 
long and sound, though perhaps not particularly refreshing. 

Such is the custom of the present time ; but two or Ihree-and-twenty 
years ago, the stout-hearted pioneer of population on the dismal and un- 
healthy banks of this singular river must have perished for want of a 
shelter, if incapable of providing one for himself. 

The laborious but very profitable employment of supplying the innu- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 9 

merablc steamboats with fire-wood, which now bribes so many to brave 
ague and privation of all kinds, was then in the hands of very few; and 
none who ventured to embrace it could hope to do so without en- 
countering at least as much of danger and difficulty as Jonathan 
Whillaw. 



CHAPTER II. 

It is not my intention to enter upon a lengthened detail of the " get 
along" process of JonalhanWhitlaw in his new abode : iheevenlsl wish 
to dwell upon are of more recent dale. It will therefore be sufficient 
for my purpose to slate, that a spirit of industry which even intempe- 
rance could not conquer, enabled him to raise, unaided by any hands 
but those of his female companions, such a shelter as appeared com- 
pletely to satisfy the wishes of ihose for whose use it was constructed. 
Whal praise could the most skilful architect desire more? Nor were 
their daily necessilies less fully answered : Clio had often the supreme 
enjoyment of banqueting on a grilled herring; Portia had never yet 
seen the bottom of her meal-lub ; and Jonathan's shanty soon came to 
be so well known to the flat-boat traders going down, and the steam- 
boat traders going up the river, that there was no need of his taking a 
journey to Natchez to ensure the replenishing of his whisky-cask. 

He had, in truth, chosen his location well. With a species of skill 
and exertion peculiar to himself and his class, he contrived to abstract 
from his elegant Mohana Creek so many uprooted trees, that till the 
dry summer months stopped the supply, he had rarely occasion to fell 
one for the construction of the well-packed piles of wood, which it wzs 
the especial province of the strong-armed Clio to arrange upon the river's 
bank. To use his own language, " Natur was in partnership-like with 
him," and being a partner that never slept, he not unfrequenlly found 
leisure himself to take a spell in the bush with his rifle, an instrument 
which he used as skilfully as the axe. The result of this agreeable va- 
riety of occupation was, that Clio was almost as often employed to roast 
a turkey, as to grill a herring; and the table constructed of the limbers 
of his flat boat not unfrequenlly smoked with a service of game which 
an European board might have been proud to boast." 

Meanwhile that hour, important alike in the palace or the hut — -at 
least to the individual most concerned in it — overlook poor Porlia; 
and on returning one evening from a " gunning frolic" in the forest, 



10 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Mr. Jonathan Whitlaw was greeted with the intelligence that he was 
the father of a thriving boy. 

Clio, whose genius for usefulness seemed universal, performed the 
duties of a nurse both to mother and child as successfully as if she had 
studied the profession at the Hospice de la Maternite at Paris; and 
when she presented the new-born babe to her brother, she felt as much 
pride in the office as if conscious that she held in her arms a latent 
President. 

Jonathan too, though not particularly susceptible of the tenderer 
feelings of our nature, looked on the boy with considerable satisfaction. 

" That's jam, gal," said he, addressing his wife. " Boys be the 
right sort for the bush, mind that. Not but what Cli is up to a thing 
or two, too. But boys is most profitable, that's a fact. I calculate 
now that this younker will be fit to turn a dollar one way or another by 
the time ten years is gone done ; and if we can keep him from starling 
for five more — " 

But here our hero gave so prodigious a squall, that Clio started off 
with him to his mother, and the remainder of the prediction was left 
unspoken. 

However favourable it might have been, however, the years which 
followed gave the provident father no cause to think that his first im- 
pressions respecting his heir were in any degree too favourable. Jo- 
nathan Jefferson Whitlaw, for so was the young back-woodsman named, 
testified innumerable qualities that might have justified the hopes of the 
most sanguine father in America. Spite of occasional " shaking," he 
was stout in limb ; and considering the rather restricted nature of his 
position as compared to society at large, his knowledge and intelligence 
increased with surprising rapidity. 

Never certainly did any child, even among the most precocious 
wonders of the European world, display a more eager desire of pro- 
fiting by every opportunity of acquiring information and experience 
than the young Jonathan Jefferson. No steam-boat ever approached 
his father's station from the lime he completed his third year, without 
finding him standing at Ihe very extremity of the log platform that pro- 
jected from the bank for Ihe convenience of the engine-men who took 
their fuel there, and happy was Jonathan Jefferson when it chanced, 
which was not unfrequently, that his keen black eyes and curly head 
tempted some good-humoured idler to give him a hand, that he might 
spring on board and gaze upon the wonders to be seen within her. 
These favours were requited by so knowing and fearless a nod on the 
part of the young explorer, that the first playful act was often followed 
by very active patronage as long as the operation of " wooding" lasted ; 
and the bold boy generally returned to his sickly molher, or his much 
belter loved aunt Cli, with nearly all his scanty garments held up in a 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 11 

most firm and careful grasp, lest the biscuits, raisins, apples, and cents 
bestowed on him by the passengers should escape. 

At the age of five, if any old acquaintance held out the accustomed 
hand to aid his boarding, it was thrust aside by a saucy action of the 
little sturdy elbow, and Jonathan Jefferson was on the deck, in the 
cabin, beside the engine, or in the immost recesses of the steward's 
pantry, before any one knew where he came from. 

It will be readily supposed that a man like Jonathan Whitlaw did 
not suffer the abilities of such a boy as this to remain idle. He was 
early given to understand that all he ate, he must earn ; and as he soon 
manifested a family affinity to his good aunt in his love of a savoury 
morsel, the prudent father failed not to turn this discriminating palate 
to advantage^ selling every shot of his own rifle for a due proportion of 
labour performed in building up the cords of wood, or in exploring the 
creek, by his active boy. 

Not only one, but many dollars had the child earned or turned in 
some way or olher, before the ten years named in his father's pre- 
diction had elapsed. Nor had the stalwart woodman gone half as far 
in his daring hopes for the future, formed for himself when first he 
stood houseless and hungry on the swampy bank which he had selected, 
as the result justified. No wood was so well cut and so well " sawed" 
as Whitlaw's; no woodsman was so ready in counting, so quick in 
settling, and so every way convenient for men in a hurry to deal with, 
as this our fortune-favoured squaller. Ague and fever seemed to keep 
clear of him lest they should be baffled in the strife, and turning from 
his close-knit iron frame, poured all their vengeance on his poor shrink- 
ing wife. But Clio, whose constitution bore a close resemblance to his 
own, still continued his zealous and most efficient fellow-labourer. 
After " shaking a spell" during the autumn of the first year or two, she 
too defied the foul fiend that haunts the western world in the shape of 
ague, and thenceforward appeared to suffer no more from the climate 
than the wolves and the bears, which the busy noises of their active 
establishment had driven back into the woods. 

At Ihe end of the third year, a cow, whose coat seemed to indicate 
some affinity to her neighbour bears, was added to the " plenishing of 
the lot ;" and the omnipotent Clio contrived to sell the best milk on the 
river to all the yellow-tinted or woolly-headed stewards, whose interest 
it is to make the breakfasts, dinners, and suppers on board the steam- 
boats atone by their excellence for the tedious hours between. Good 
store of hogs, which grubbed most delicate fattening in the forest, con- 
tributed not a little to the family fund of wealth and good living; and 
lastly, an additional room was added to the shanty, over the door of 
which directly fronting the river, was inscribed wilh red paint in letters 
of a foot high — 

Whitlaw's Whisky Store. 



12 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

The cents, fips, picciunes, bits, levys, quarters, halves, and dollars, 
which in the course of four years were left within this shed, very greatly 
exceeded the most sanguine calculations of Whitlaw; and as " Prime 
Bacon" — " Capital Chewing Tobacco" — " First-rate Domestic," and 
" Fine Meal," were successively added to the anouncements, the store 
soon became the resort of every squatter within ten miles, as well as 
the favourite stopping-place of all the craft on the river. 

The son and heir of this prosperous settler had just completed his 
tenth year, when an accident occurred to him, the consequences of 
which entirely changed the position and circumstances of his family. ' 

Early in the month of August 18 — , one of the noblest and largest 
steam-boats ever launched on the Mississippi was seen tp bend grace- 
fully round the projecting swell of the bank below Mohana Creek, and 
approach the landing-place in front of the store. 

Young Whitlaw was occupied, at the moment she came in sight, in 
poking a long pole into a hole in the bank, in which he fancied he 
should find some " crocodile's eggs." Struck by her splendid appear- 
ance, he left his employment, and placing himself at his accustomed 
post on the edge of the platform, impatiently awaited her arrival. 

Before the steam had been let off, or the paddles ceased to play, the 
impatient boy determined to spring on board, and trusting to his pole, 
which he fixed, as he thought, firmly on the platform, he attempted 
to swing himself into the vessel — a distance of at least twelve feet. So 
active and well practised were his young limbs, that it is probable he 
would have succeeded, had not the slippery log on which he had placed 
his pole permitted it to give way at the very moment its firmness was 
most essential to his safety, and the instant it sank from his hand the 
adventurous child fell headlong into the water 

Above two hundred persons saw the accident ; and the boy's greatest 
danger now arose from the variety and eagerness of the measures put 
in practice to save him. But it appeared that the little fellow never 
lost his presence of mind for a moment ; for, without paying the 
slightest attention to the contradictory cries of "Hold fast to this rope" 
from one quarter, and " Catch by this tub" from another, the bold boy, 
who swam like an otter, deliberately turned from the dangerous pro- 
jection of the gallery, and marking the moment when the open gang- 
way approached, sprang upwards, seized its railing, and in an instant 
stood unharmed on board the boat. 

That awful peculiarity of the Mississippi river, which causes it to 
bear away whatever sinks beneath its surface beyond the reach and 
power of the most skilful search that would recover it, is so well known 
to every inhabitant of the region, that the sight of a human being 
falling into its fatal wave creates a much stronger sensation than any 
similar accident would do elsewhere. Young Whitlaw, therefore, was 
instantly surrounded by a crowd of anxious and friendly faces. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 19 

"A pretty considerable escape you've had, my boy! " exclaimed one. 

" Your fate is not drowning, at any rate, you young devil," cried 
another. 

" A famous swimmer you are, and that's a fact, boy," observed a 
third. 

" And a bold heart as ever I see," observed a fourth. 

11 Are you not wet to the skin, my poor fellow?" inquired a kind- 
hearted gentleman, shuddering sympathetically. 

" And what does it signify if I be ?" replied the boy with an accent 
which implied more scorn than gratitude. " But, I say," he conti- 
nued, fixing his eyes on a very handsome rifle which the compas- 
sionate gentleman held in his hand, " what will you sell that there 
rifle for?" 

The offended philanthropist turned away, muttering, " Impudent 
young varment !" or some such phrase, while a chorus of laughter from 
those around testified the general feeling of admiration excited by the 
dauntless spirits of the saucy boy; 

There was one spectator, however, who, though by no means less 
observant than the rest, had hitherto only looked on in silence, lie 
remarked that the boy followed the rifle with his eyes as the indignant 
bearer of it walked away ; and wisely judging that it was Jonathan 
Jefferson's innate love of barter which had dictated the question, and 
no idle ebullition of impertinence, as (he mistaken laughers imagined, 
he determined to find out who it was, who at so early an age evinced 
such undaunted courage, a wit so ready at command, and a disposition 
for bargain-making which, even at a moment so agitating, did not 
forsake him. 

The observant and judicious stranger continued to keep his eye 
fixed on the boy, but did not address him till the crowd which had 
witnessed his escape was dispersed, and then, laying a hand gently 
on his shoulder, he said — " What is your name, my fine fellow ?" 

"Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw," replied the boy civilly : for he looked 
up into the inquirer's face as he addressed him, and a something, 
which, if it be not instinct, it would be difficult to name, whispered to 
him that he was rich. 

" Jonathan Jefferson ?" replied the stranger ; "a good name that, 
boy, — an exceeding good name : I expect your father's no fool. Who 
is your father, my lad? Where do you come from ?" 

" My father is a first-rate capital back-woodsman, and we keeps a 
store ; and that's Aunt Cli milking our own cow for the steward ; and 
I sell all the skins I can snare, and I've got an axe of my own." 

"Can you read, my boy?" 

" No," — responded Jonathan Jefferson in an accent somewhat 
humbled. 



14 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

" Will you work for me, and do all that I bid you, if I take you 
home with me and have you taught to read f 

The cautious child did not immediately reply — and at this moment 
the bell was rung which gave the signal for departure. 

"Off with you, my lad," cried the steward as he stepped on board 
with his jug of milk, " or we shall run away with you." 

The boy's eyes were still fixed on the face of the person who had 
addressed him, as he stepped towards the edge of the boat preparatory 
to springing on shore, but the important question was still left un- 
answered. 

"I shall stop here again, perhaps, coming down," said the stranger, 
nodding to him; "and I will come on shore and see you again, and 
then you shall answer me." 

When the labours of that eventful day were ended, and the family 
were assembled round the evening meal, young Whitlaw, after a 
silence of several minutes, said abruptly, "Father! — why can't 1 
read?" 

The question seemed a puzzling one ; for the person to whom it 
was addressed repeated the words twice over before he attempted to 
answer it. 

"Why can't you read, boy? — why can't you read ? Well, now, if 
that don't beat all natur ! When did ever a body hear such a question 
from a brat of a chicken, and he but ten years old this very month?" 

As this speech seemed to be addressed, like most of Mr. Whillaw's 
speeches, to his sister Clio, it was his sister Clio who answered it. 

"Well now, Bub, I'll tell you a piece of my mind : you'll find no 
good reason, if you look about from Georgia to Maine, why this 'ere 
smart chapofour'n shouldn't be President — and so I say loo, why don't 
the boy be learnt to read?" 

"The vixen's mad, as sure as the moon's in heaven!" exclaimed 
the master of the dwelling with much vehemence ; yet something in 
his eye and his voice taught those whose interest it was to understand 
his humour, that he was neither displeased nor indifferent. 

"What put that into your head, boy?" said he, turning short round 
towards his son, and rousing him from a reverie into which he seemed 
to have fallen, by raising the toe of his hob-nailed shoe so as gently to 
touch the boy's chin — "What put reading into your head?" 

" That don't much mailer, 1 expect," replied the young republican ; 
'but I've got it into my head somehow, I can tell you that — and I 
guess that if I can't be learned here, I'll run away to where I can." 

Ciio again looked in her brother's face with some anxiety, not feel- 
ing quite sure whether her darling might not this time get a kick in 
good earnest ; but she saw there was nothing to fear. 

" You're a chip of the old block, I calculate, my fine one," said the 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 15 

proud father, eyeing the boy from top to toe ; "but I shall play another 
sort of game with you, from what my father was often playing with me 
— I'll make a gentleman off-hand of thee, boy — so no need to run." 

"Father, I must begin reading to-morrow." 

"Well, now, Jonathan," said the father, laughing, "my notion is 
that you had best wait a spell for it. Next month I shall go down to 
Natchez for goods; and if you'll behave yourself, and not badger me 
about it, I'll take you with me, and maybe leave you at some real 
right-down college for a few quarters." 

"My !" exclaimed the neglected Portia, w 7 hose opinion was 

seldom asked on any subject, " you won't leave him that far away, Jo- 
nathan, will y'ou ?" 

"Your boy'll never be in Congress, Porchy, if he can't read," said 
Clio kindly ; "so don't you put a spoke in his wheel, any- 
how. But, Bub," she continued, "why for should we all bide here, 
if he be to take his learning at Natchez? You and I know, don't we, 
that you may open a store any day in a grander place than this? And 
I mind, when first we put foot at Mohana Creek, that you said, ' That 
very creek shall make dollars enough in ten years to open store at 
Natchez :' and isn't it ten years? and arn't the dollars made? and 
wouldn't it be an elegant sight to see us all set off in a steamer ? and 
couldn't you sell the good-will for silver?" 

These pithy questions followed each other with such rapidity — for 
the eloquence of Clio seemed to warm as she proceeded — that it was 
not very surprising that she received no answer to them. It was not, 
however, a knavish speech that slept in a foolish ear ; for it suggested 
many thoughts which, working with those already awakened by 
young Jonathan's wilfulness, produced the results that will hereafter be 
seen. 

For the present, however, all further discussion of the subject was 
suspended ; for the voice which had hitherto been absolute beneath 
that roof pronounced — 

" Now let us all go to bed." 

And not another syllable was uttered by any of them that night. 



16 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 



CHAPTER III. 

Young as Jonathan Jefferson was at this time, he understood his 
father's ways and humours, and how to manage them too, better than 
many highly-educated youths of twice his age, who, having passed all 
their vacations under the paternal roof, have only arriv&d at the con- 
clusion that their father was — their father, without troubling them- 
selves to attribute to him any other characteristics whatever. Far 
different w 7 as the case with young Whitlaw. If he wanted a few 
cents with which to chaffer for some coveted article on board the next 
steam-boat, he watched his moment for asking for them as carefully 
and as skilfully as a hawk for the instant of seizing her prey. Jonathan 
Jefferson already loved a quid, yet he would suffer days and days to 
elapse without ever asking the paternal hand to share the luxury with 
him ; but Jonathan Jefferson was seldom or never without a store of 
prime chewing tobacco in the pocket of his jacket, given him cheer- 
fully and willingly by his carefui father. 

It was this principle of " watching his time" which sent the am- 
bitious youth so silently and obedienlly to bed, in the manner recorded 
in the last chapter. His young mind was, however, stiffly deci.ied 
upon leaving Mohana Creek one way or another before the winter set 
in, as Napoleon's was upon marrying an Austrian archduchess. As 
he laid his head on his bag of Turkey feathers, he determined not to 
go to sleep till he had thought a great deal about the stranger, and 
about Natchez, and about being a great man. But here the universal 
law of nature conquered the force of incipient character ; and no 
sooner had he decided what to think of, than Jonathan Jefferson 
dropped asleep. 

With the earliest light, however, he was beyond the reach of any 
human eye, sealed at the foot of a maple-tree, where the prickly pear 
was not. The spot had no other advantage, except indeed that it was 
so shut in by brambles, that even Aunt Cli had never discovered the 
retreat, though it was one to which he constantly resorted when it 
was his wish and will to be idle and alone. Another boy might have 
chosen one of the many nooks within his reach which the wild vine 
embellished with its graceful arid fragrant festoons ; but li.tle Jonathan 
JeU'erson had "no such stuff in his thoughts;" he wanted a place 
where he could sit easy, count his levys and picciunes without being 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON VVI11TLAW. 1? 

looked at, and be very sure that nobody could find him out till he 
chose to let them. 

Here then he sat down to meditate on the new hopes that had broken 
in upon him. 

Had not the boy spent so many brilliant half-hours on board the 
steam-boats, his native shed and the dark world around it would not 
thus early have appeared so contemptible in his aspiring eyes; but as it 
was, he never left the silk curtains, gilt mouldings, gay sofas, and 
handsome mirrors of the cabins behind him, without wishing that he 
might live among them for ever, and never, never more behold the 
dirty dismal " get-along" style of living to which he seemed destined. 

The words of the well-dressed, rich-looking stranger resounded in 
his ears — 

" Will you work for me, if I take you home with me, and have 
you taught to read ?" 

"Work for him?" soliloquised the boy. "He can't give me 
harder work than father ; and when I'm learning to read, I can't be 
working, anyhow. — Go home with him? Why, his home must bo 
as fine as a steam-boat, to look at his beautiful hat and while shirt, 
and shiny boots. I'd run away and go home with him to-morrow, 
if 'twasn't for leaving Aunt Cli, and having no one, maybe, to give 
me all the nice bits at a sly lime, and to praise me up everlasting for 
all I do." 

The idea of his aunt led his thoughts into another direction. 

"There's no need for me to run away to anybody, if falher would 
give me all his money, as he ought to do. They fancy I know nothing 
about it ; as if, because I was abed, and mother snoring t'olher side, I 
must be asleep to. But I can lie still and peep a spell ; and I've seen 
falher and aunt haul out as many dollars upon the table as would buy 
me a house as fine as a cabin, and leave a lot to count over when I 
went to bed besides. — If I could but get at them dollars " 

Such, had his thoughts been spoken, would have been the language 
of the urchin as he sat scarifying the soft moss beside him with a twig 
that had dropped on it from the maple-tree. And then his mind 
wandered back again from his father, Aunt Cli, and their hoarded 
treasure, to the stranger, of whose offers and promises he had spoken 
to no one. 

"And they need know nothing about it," was the well-weighed 
judgment to which he came at last. ' ' We'll see what father means 
about Natchez ; but if I tell him about the gentleman first, maybe 
he'll do nothing at all." 

Once arrived at this conclusion, and Steadfastly determined to abide 
by it, young Jonathan started to his feet, slipped as cautiously as an 
Indian through the bushes that enclosed his retreat, and walked home 

2 



15 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

to eat his breakfast, and tell his father that he had set a first-rate snare, 
which he was sure would trap a possum afore night. 

" Arn't he a smart boy, Porchy?" said Clio, who wanted to attack 
her brolher again, without directly addressing him. '* Ten years old 
last Wednesday was a week, and hunting and snaring, and swimming 
and fending, as if he was twenty ! Now w r on't it be a burning shame 
if he bean't taught to read?" 

V Wait a spell, gal," said her brolher somewhat sternly, " and you 
shall see what metal I'm made of, if you don't altogether know 
already. But don't bother me, or my dander will be up, I tell you, 
and I'll be as wralhy as an affronted alligator; and then you'll 
wish you'd stayed longer a-draining the drippings from Sue-cherry, 
maybe." 

Clio did know something of his metal, and secretly determined 
never to allude again to the literary deficiences of her nephew till the 
subject was started by the imperious back-woodsman himself. This 
truly wise resolution, so well deserving the attention of my female 
readers, was founded especially upon two points in his character with 
which she was well acquainted : namely, that Jonathan Whillaw 
never abandoned a notion he had once taken into his head, till he had 
tried, and found it wanting either in feasibility or profit; and that he 
never promised to be in a passion without keeping his word. 

It is probable that Jonathan the younger had come to something like 
the same conclusions; for that day passed away, and the morrow, and 
the day after it, without one word being uttered by either of them 
about Natchez, or the art of reading. The sickly, silly, lazy, languid 
Portia, never troubled herself to ask for more information on any 
subject than was proffered to her; and being on the whole pretty 
effectually guarded from the imperious temper of her republican 
husband by the ready good-nature and adroitness of his sister, she 
continued to " get along" as peaceably as ague, fever, and dyspepsia 
would let her. Poor Porchy, therefore, was not likely to break 
through the very diplomatic silence preserved by the other members 
of the household ; and thus the subject which wholly occupied the 
minds of three out of four of the party appeared to be utterly forgotten 
by all. 

Meanwhile other boats passed by both up and down the river, and 
Jonathan Jefferson's visits were continued, though in somewhat a less 
animated manner; for now his father generally accompanied him, and 
the boy felt or fancied that he was watched by him as he proceeded in 
his customary pursuit of forage and adventure. On one occasion, 
indeed, he was utterly discomfited; for Jonathan senior having entered 
into conversation with a passenger going down the river, he in his 
turn fancied he had a domestic spy near him, and, turning sharply 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. ltf 

round, commanded Jonathan junior to clear off, and assist his aunt in 
measuring the wood for the engine-men. 

To a command uttered in such a tone the boy well knew that prompt 
obedience must be shown, and accordingly he did obey; but in his 
secret soul he determined to give up whatever hopes of wealth and 
dignity the vision of " a store at Natchez" had generated in his fancy, 
and watching patiently for the return of the stranger, to elude his 
father's vigilance, put himself under the rich man's protection, and 
turn his back upon tyranny and Mohana Creek for ever. 

The precocious lad had quite enough energy of character and 
decision of purpose to have executed this mental threat ; and it was for- 
tunate for the subsequent prosperity of the family that Mr. Jonathan 
Whitlaw had decided upon his plans before his son and heir found the 
opportunity of carrying into execution his own. 

The day following his dismissal from the steam-boat, young Jonathan 
was startled by the unusual sound of a horse's feet advancing by the 
narrow path which the reputation of the store had of late years cleared 
through the forest. Only twice before had such a phenomenon ap- 
peared at Mohana Greek, and most eager was the haste and curiosity 
with which the whole came forth to greet it. 

Clio and the boy both instantly perceived that the guest whose ap- 
proach was made in so unwonted a manner, was expected by Whit- 
law; but their curiosity was excited only to be baffled : no sooner had 
the man alighted, and fastened his beast to a tree, than that voice 
whose breath was the law of the Creek pronounced its mandates 
thus : — 

11 Cli! be smart — hand me the whisky demi-john and two cups — ■ 
and then clear yourself off to your suds. Porchy ! be after looking 
up the hogs, and drive 'em home. And you, Sir Peeper," he added, 
turning to the boy, who had ensconced himself very snugly behind the 
meal-tub, "you take yourself to the bush, or the devil, or where you 
will, — only take care I don't find your ears within reach of my 
fist/' 

The next moment saw the back-woodsman and his guest tete-a-tete, 
and each with a cup of whisky before him. The conference lasted 
nearly an hour, and appeared to have been amicable and satisfactory ; 
for when they walked forth together from the shanty, the banished 
family, who were sitting together at very discreet distance upon one 
of the cords of wood, observed that the aspect and manner of both were 
cheerful and well satisfied: and as Whitlaw civilly held the stirrup 
of his guest as he mounted, they heard him say in his gentlest ac- 
cents. 

"Well, Major, next Wednesday then——" 

3* 



20 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

1 ' Next Wednesday then ?" what a world of conjecture was created 
by these three words ! 

" Come along in," said Whillaw to his family, as he turned from 
the farewell nod of his visiter and re-entered the shanty. 

Jonathan junior looked into the face of Clio. She answered the 
appeal by giving him a wink, and laying her finger on her lips, to 
enforce his silence ; this being, as she well knew, the only chance of 
their learning what was going forward from the free-born citizen. The 
boy understood her, and nodded in return. 

" Well, now !" said the blue-lipped Porchy, who was trembling in 
every limb, not from cold indeed, but from the demon ague — "well, 
now 1 I thought he meant to bide for ever. Clio, do give me a drop 
of something warm." 

They all entered the hut together, and Clio was not sorry to have 
something with which to make herself busy, that she might not even 
look as if she were curious ; so that it was with even more than her 
usual alacrity that she prepared hot toddy to comfort her shaking 
sister-in-law. 

But the hour was come, and Whitlaw was now as impatient to be 
heard as he had previously been at the idea of being questioned. 

" What in the devil's name are you niggling about there, Cli ?" he 
exclaimed, as he testily watched her operations near the fire. "I 
guess I want to be listened to a spell, and not have you fiddling up the 
chimney in that fashion." 

" I'll only give this hot drop to poor Porchy, Bub, who's shaking 
like a rag in a hurricane; and then I'll sit down and listen to you, jam." 

' ' What the devil do you cook water to give her for ? If she shakes, 
give her a real drop at once, and that will give her a chance if anything 
will." 

"I lake it neat!" exclaimed the poor woman with unaffected 
distaste. "Oh, Jonathan ! what would become of my poor head if I 
took it neat every time I began shaking ?" 

" I don't think your head would be a bit the worser, woman. 
Howsomever, you have got it now after your own fancy ; so be still. 
And you Cli, sit down for a minute, without jumping up again, if you 
can, and I'll give you a notion of me. You need not be after hiding 
yourself, J. J. ; for I 'm minded that you shall hear me too this time, 
and no sly work neither." 

Had not the boy known that this epithet of J. J. was a signal of 
especial good-humour, he might have felt somewhat uneasy at this pal- 
pable allusion to one of his peculiarities, of which he was himself 
thoroughly aware ; but he saw that at present at least he had nothing 
to fear, and accordingly sat down as near to his aunt as might be, with 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAVV. ♦! 

Ihe very agreeable expectation of having a curiosity gratified which 
really for the last hour had almost kept him on the rack. 

Well, now, I expect you have all of you forgot every word I said 
about college, and Natchez, and learning, and all that?" began the con- 
sequential orator. " It is really surprising what shortsighted creature* 
Godamighty has seen fit to make women ! As for this young chap, I'd 
bet a keg to a quid, that he'd have been thinking of nothing else, from 
that day to this, if he'd dared ; but I calculate he knows pretty con- 
siderable well that 'tis safest not to let his notions progress, when I bids 
'em to stand still. So I find no fault on that score. But now, listen 
to me a spell, as I bid you, and you'll be able to comprehend a little 
what sort of a man you have got for your head." 

He paused for a moment, and looked in the anxious faces before 
him ; and a smile of indescribable self-admiration wrinkled his lough 
skin. 

I expect you don't any of ye exactly guess what for that chap was 
here but now? — I calculate that there is not one of the whole kit that 
comprehends that I have sold my improvements, store, pig-sty, and 

all, for no matter how much, Jonathan junior, I shan't name (hat, 

for all you look so sharp. It is enough for you to know, one and all, 
that the dollars is to be told out next Wednesday, and that the day 
after I shall take a spell aboard the first steamer as passes down, to 
look at an elegant store that I knows of seven miles this side Natchez, 
not on the river neither, but on a pretty lot, well improved, without a 
tree to be seen on it, and no more in the bush than New Orlines : and 
then this smart youngster here may take his schooling at Natchez, and 
keep a spell at home every Sunday into the bargain. Now, then, 
what d'ye say to me? — am I the man to manage the world, or am 
I not?" 

M Then I'll not run away after nobody ! exclaimed the boy, too 
much delighted with the news to be perfectly discreet; " only tell 
me, father, the name of the new place?" 

" The lot's called Mount Etna ; but it an't much of a mount either, 
seeing that it's jest on the water level, or near it. Howsomever, it's 
dreadful fine land. What shall you say, Cli, to having a nigger of our 
own to slave it for us ? " 

"My — ! " exclaimed both the women at once ; for the glory of pos- 
sessing a negro inspired even the languid Portia. " Well, now, Jona- 
than, that will be jam!" added Clio, rubbing her hands with delight. 
" Will it be a he or a she, Jonathan ? " 

" A he, Cli, — a he, to begin with. Who knows what we may come 
to ? If things goes well, I may buy a gal or two ; and in time, if we 
progress, we may breed some young ones. Nothing pays belter — 'spe- 
cially so near upon the canes." 



22 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

" Well now, but that beats all natur, for we to have a gang of nig- 
gers of our own ! Oh, Jonathan ! Jonathan ! how I wish that Wash- 
ington Buckskin could see us then !" 

( * Ay, may be he'd sing to another tune, Cli. Howsomever, you're 
an old maid now, sis, and 'tis all the better for both of us. " 

There was no tendency to repining in the temper of Clio, so that 
she did not give above half a sigh to the memory of the too prudent 
lover of her youth, and the next moment was looking forward as cheer- 
fully as if she had never known disappointment. She listened to her 
brother's detail of cows, and hogs, and poultry innumerable, all to be 
under her especial care, without thinking it possible that she could 
ever work too hard, and abandoned her imagination wholly to the de- 
lightful occupation of painting the joy of her eyes and the darling of 
her heart, her own beautiful Jonathan Jefferson, progressing with 
rapid strides towards the exalted rank she had ever predicted he would 
hold. 



CHAPTER IV. 

At three o'clock in the afternoon on the following Wednesday, the 
sound of an approaching gentle trot was again heard among the bushes 
behind the shanty; and immediately afterwards, the same horseman 
appeared in sight, and the same ceremony of evacuating the premises 
was performed by the three inferior members of the family, its chief re- 
ceiving his guest, as before, to a private audience; the only difference 
being, that in addition to the demi-john and drinking-cups, a stout 
canvass bag was laid on the table between them. 

The period of the interview, however, was now passed in a manner 
infinitely less tedious by those who were banished from it than the 
last. The spirits of all were elevated by the belief that in that very 
hour, while they stood and sat idly looking at each other, a goodly 
store of dollars were passing into the possession of their race. 

" Well, now, Porchy," said the happy and triumphant Clio, " isn't 
our Jonathan first-rale? To think of our living so elegant and belly- 
full for ten years, and then, 'stead of finding that we had come to the 
end of everything, as so many do, to see him haul in — it don't matter 
how much, but such a capital lot of hard money, and that not copper 
neither ! 

"And how much is it, Aunt Cli?" said the boy, throwing his arm 
coaxingiy round the neck of his aunt. "I know you can tell if you'd 
speak. Come, now aunty, I won't be after no mischief for a week if 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. feS 

you'll jest tell me how many dollars father's having gived to him this 
minute?" 

But Clio, if she knew the secret, proved herself a trustworthy confi-r 
dant, for not even the cajoleries of young Jonathan could induce her to 
betray it. 

11 1 wonder if I shall shake as much in the new lot?" said poor Portia, 
looking almost hopefully as she added, "Do you know, Cli, I do be- 
lieve it be this unaccountable big river, and the bushes and the bogs, 
that make me so sick everlasting, 'cause I never was so afore I corned 
here." 

The kind-hearted Clio encouraged her hopes, and recounted sundry 
histories which she had heard from their forest customers, of the bet- 
terfying effects of the handsome locations round Natchez. 

"Tis the most splendid bluff on the river," she continued, " that's 
a fact; and though our lot bean't on the very tip-lop of it, maybe, yet 
we'll have the benefit of it, sis, that's past doubling." 

"And do the folks live fine there, Aunt Cli?" inquired the boy 
eagerly : "have they got cabins to sit in ?" 

"To be sure they have, my darling, as fine as New Orlines; and 
thee shall be the finest of 'em all, my glory, — mark my words if thee 
shan't." 

So numerous were the questions and so agreeable the answers which 
arose during this conversation on the wood-slacks, that when the door 
of the shanty opened and the two men appeared at it, Portia's observa- 
tion was. 

"My ! if they haven't done finished already !" 

Short as the time appeared, however, the business of the meeting 
had been fully completed to the entire satisfaction of both parlies ; a fact 
of which Whitlaw's family had not the slightest doubt, though on this 
occasion, as on many others, his greatness showed itself by not uttering 
a single word, after the departure of his guest, on the subject on which 
he knew that his humble dependants were longing to hear him speak. 
But these dignified fits of silence never occurred, excepting when tho 
Western potentate (of whom there are nearly as many as there are fa- 
milies in the New World) felt himself particularly well pleased with the 
facts he could, but would not, communicate. When it was otherwise 
— when some bargain had gone against him, or some enterprise had 
proved more difficult or less profitable than he expected, then each and 
every one belonging to him was sure to hear of it. Yet Whitlaw was 
by no means a particularly ill-tempered man : he was only a free-born 
tyrant. 

This negative assurance, therefore, that all was right, perfectly sa- 
tisfied the reasonable Clio ; sent the acute heir to his maple-tree to enjoy 
a delightful half-hour in counting over his own hoard, and guessing 



24 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

that somehow or other he would soon find a way to double it; and 
cheered the languid heart of Portia, as she sought a log wherewith to 
boil her coffee, by suggesting that her own nigger should do that job 
for her before long. 

At an early hour on the following morning, the gallant "Lady 
Washington" steamer appeared in sight, coming down the river " like 
a queen" (a simile, by the way, much oftenermade use of in the repub- 
lic of America than in all the kingdoms and queendoms of Europe) ; 
and Jonathan Whitlaw, with the alacrity of a man intent on a scheme 
at once ambitious and prudent, sprang on board as soon as he had poc- 
keted the price of the wood which Clio and the boy had measured out 
for her. 

In less than three hours after, another steam-boat stopped at Whit- 
law's station ; and just as young Jonathan was preparing to enjoy once 
more an unchecked visit on board, the stranger who had distinguished 
him on the day he fell into the river made him a sign to return, and im- 
mediately after joined him on the bank. 

The boy knew there was no time to lose, as the boat was not of large 
dimensions, and the quantity of wood she would require must be pro- 
porlionably small; yet he would not take his visiter into the shanty, 
lest such allusion might be made to their former interview as would 
lead to inquiries and chidings, which it would be belter to avoid. His 
mother was, as usual, hovering over the fire; and his aunt too busily 
engaged in measuring the wood, to do more than give him a wondering 
glance in passing, as he led the well-dressed stranger beyond the little 
clearing, and up the narrow path which traversed the forest. 

" Where are you taking me, boy?" said the gentleman, stopping 
short, after he had taken two steps into the bush : " I don't want to 
explore the forest, my lad, and the boat will be off in no time. Have 
you asked your father about going with me? I am ready to take you, 
if you're ready to come, and promise to be steady and faithful, and 
learn smart, and do all I bid you." 

" I would do all that, and more," answered the boy, " if father was 
going to bide here ; for I don't choose to live like a bear and an alli- 
gator any longer, — and that's what they say I do, aboard the boats. 
But father is going to take us to a right-down elegant store above Nat- 
chez ; and I'm to be larnt to read, and we're to have a black nigger of 
our own ; and so I don't want to run away now." 

" Run away!— I never asked you to run away, child. What put 
that frolic into your head? However, if you are going to school, that 
is all right; and if you are the fine boy I take you for, we may be 
better acquainted yet. What's the name of your father's lot, boy? — 
d'ye know?" 

" Mount Etna," answered young Jonathan. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 25 

" Mount Etna, is it? I know that bit well ; 'tis a thriving job,— 
your father's up to a thing or two, I take it. There's the bell : — re- 
member, boy, my name's Colonel Dart ; and if you take your learning 
well, I'll make a gentleman of you." 

" Father will make a gentleman of me," said the young republican 
stoutly; " and Aunt Cli will send me up to Congress." 

" Will she ?" said the stranger, laughing : " that's well ; but I may 
be a useful friend, nevertheless. If you are at school at Natchez, I 
shall see you. Do not forget Colonel Dart." 

So saying, the stranger walked off, and immediately re-embarked, 
leaving our hero rather puzzled as to why he " seemed so dreadful fond 
of him." 

Of Colonel Dart we shall hear more hereafter; but for the present 
the reader must share young Whitlaw's doubts concerning him. Be- 
fore the circumstance of his visiting Mohana be dismissed, however, a 
trait of Jonathan Jefferson's ingenuity must be recorded, as it may 
assist in the development of his interesting character. 

To any other boy of his age, the close inquiries of Clio would pro- 
bably have proved exceedingly embarrassing ; but he baffled them com- 
pletely, and that almost by a single word. 

" Thai's altogether new, Jonathan," said his puzzled aunt, "for 
you to go and take the fine.folks out of the boats, and bring 'em to walk 
about in the bush, just to keep you company. What for did that man 
come to you ; tell me, Jonathan, will you?" 

" He came on shore, aunt, to look for some dreadful fine moss that 
he says grows hereabouts, to give to his mocking-bird that was sick." 

" And did he find it, Jonathan?" 

"No, Aunt Cli, 'cause the bell rung, and he was obliged to run 
back before he had done looked for it." 

What the secret motive might be which led this very intelligent 
young citizen to conceal the visit of Colonel Dart from his indulgent 
aunt, who, as he very well knew, unfailingly approved of everything 
he did, I have never been able to ascertain. Perhaps it was the result 
of having watched those dignified concealments of his father, one in- 
stance of which has been recently mentioned ; or it might originate 
solely in that instinctive fear of " getting into trouble," with which the 
inhabitants of the United Stales so often appear to be haunted. If this 
be so, it may unquestionably be classed as one of the kind provisions 
of nature, which is often found to furnish those creatures with the 
power of defence who arc peculiarly exposed to danger : and in a 
country w r here one half of the intercourse between man and man 
consists in askitiong quesns, the faculty which teaches to evade them 
may well be classed as a blessing 



26 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

On this occasion young Jonathan's little invention was perfectly 
successful ; Aunt Cli asked no more questions, and the visit of Colonel 
Dart was entirely forgotten, except by the object of it. 

Meanwhile the labours of the indefatigable Clio seemed involuntarily 
and almost unconsciously to relax. She felt that she was no longer at 
home—" It arn't our own now," was a frequent phrase, and a more 
frequent thought ; and excepting that she continued to tend the store, 
and milk the cow, and cook a spell, and wash a little, Clio would have 
been positively idle. All the leisure, however, which this change in 
her habits left her, was fully occupied by listening to and answering all 
the questions of Portia and the boy respecting what they should find at 
Mount Etna. Though Clio, in truth, knew no more about the place 
than themselves, the habit of resorting to her at all limes and seasons, 
whether for aid, advice, or instruction, was so strong, that had a person 
born and bred on the spot they were to inhabit been present with them, 
it is probable that every inquiry concerning it would still have been ad- 
dressed to Clio. 

For some days after the departure of Whillaw the time passed plea- 
santly enough. They had plenty to eat, and to talk about, and not too 
much to do. But by degrees they began to find themselves embarassed. 
Some of their articles of sale in the store were exhausted, and the steam- 
boats passed on without stopping, for the last cord of wood was sold. 
Just at this critical juncture, when they began to feel themselves almost 
desolate with their liberty and their idleness, the great man returned, 
and in a moment everything was again in a state of activity. 

Two men landed with him. One of these, a young fellow under 
twenty, the future proprietor of Mohana Creek and all Mr. Whillaw's 
improvements, was the son of the " Major" who had made the bar- 
gain ; and who thought he had nobly provided for him, and a penniless 
girl of sixteen whom he had just married, by placing them, as he ob- 
served, " at a capital station and store, where they would be sure to take 
dollars, if the fever did not chance to take them :" but, at any rale, 
" sons what married that fashion must be provided for one way or an- 
other." 

The other companion of Whitlaw appeared to await his orders, 
which were promptly given ; and while the young bridegroom, with 
an air melanchoy enough, stood gazing around upon the improved, 
but still most wretched-looking abode, they went together into the 
store, [to which Clio was summoned to follow them, and began their 
business without delay. 

" Hand us down all them notions on that side, Cli — and I'll set to 
work upon this quarter. Take care of the dry goods — don't let them 
domestics get rumpled up that fashion, and mind the baccy and the 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAVV. 2? 

candles and the whisky. Lay every notion together with its like, and 
mix nothing. And now, Squire Higgiiis, get your writing-tackle ready, 
and begin." 

Jonathan Whitlaw then began calling over all the remaining stock 
of his store ; a complete inventory and valuation of which was made 
out, and signed by Squire Higgins. This operation, together with 
copying the whole, took about four hours; after which the three men 
each swallowed about half a pint of whisky, and then the two stran- 
gers departed together by the forest path. 

Whillaw's first words, after they were gone, were — "Now give 
me a lot of supper, Cli — and then I'll tell you what to do next." 

Curiosity as well as good-will brought a plentiful meal upon the 
original deal-table without delay. Portia, however, sat as still and 
as silent as if made of wax, to which material, allowing for a slight 
tinge of blue, instead of red, in her complexion, she bore a strong re- 
semblance; while Jonathan junior stood eyeing his father from as great 
a distance as the room permitted — for he had not yet been addressed 
as J. J., and thought it safest not to approach. But Clio, bold in use- 
fulness and good-humour, after spreading forth the substantial meal 
in her very best manner, sat smilingly dow r n opposite her imperious 
brother, and said cheerfully, "Well, Bub, and what am I to do 
next?" 

"Drink this," answered the master of the shanty, pushing his own 
whisky-cup towards her, — "drink now, Cli, if you never drink 
again, to the good luck and prosperity of Mount Etna !" 

Clio obeyed, and having swallowed about a spoonful of the noxious 
decoction, which unadulterated is as strange to the lips of the women 
as familiar to those of the men of America, she looked to her brother 
as if for permission, and then passed the cup to the pale Portia, and 
with a good-humoured nod repeated the words she was to say. 

"And the boy?" said Whillaw, looking round for him. "Where's 
the great scholar that is to be? — Come along, J. J., and drink the 
toast.'; 

Thus encouraged, Jonathan Jefferson stood forth, and accepting the 
pledge, did such zealous honour to it, that even his father was fain to 
cry out, "Hold ! enough! " 

No sooner had this ceremony been duly performed, than the 
abdicating lord of the Creek again addressed his prime minister 
Clio. 

"Ten years ago and a bit, Cli, and we stood first upon this ere 
very spot of ground ; only there was no rafters above our heads. D'ye 
mind that first night, sis ? — how I told you both that we could only 
get a spell of sleep turn and turn about ? That was the first night, and 
this will be the last we shall ever sleep or wake at Mohana Creek. 



28 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

And this last will be like that first ; for except poorPorchy there, who 
cant'l do much more waking than sleeping, and the boy, who has got 
the whisky in his head already, we must go to bed no more than if we 
expected the bears and the wolves as we did then. For 'tis by the 
first steamer that will pass to-morrow that I calculate upon shipping 
you off to Natchez. There you must bide a spell at the Eagle, till I 
give the word to start for Mount Etna. But as I've sold all here, I 
expect we must buy all there ; and if the new things pay me as well 
as the old, it will do. The Major was in a bit of a bustle, I guess, to 
locate the young ones off at once; but that's no business of mine. 
Howsumever, we couldn't bargain it for the hogs, — Iarn'tgoing to 
make bacon out of other folks' fat, when I can have my own for the 
driving. So, ladies, you'll start without me and the boy. J.J. and I 
will drive Sue-cherry and the hogs overland to Mount Etna, as soon 
as we've see'd you two off; and all the notions that you don't mean to 
leave behind must be done packed before sunrise — mind that." 

Clio was too much accustomed to labour early and late, and to forget 
herself and her own comfort on all occasions, to express or to feel the 
least discomposure at this sudden warning. 

Having first seen Portia and young Jonathan in bed, she set to work 
heartily, and all the notions of all the Whitlaws were done packed by 
sunrise; — all the notions, at least, save one; and the history of that 
one I must recount, as it demonstrates rather a sentimental trait in 
Clio's character. 

That article of the family possessions not included in the night's 
packing was the original suit in which the destitute squatter had ar- 
rived at the Creek, and in which he had performed the first hard and 
persevering labour which had laid the foundation of the present rising 
state of the Whitlaw race. This suit, having been at length condemned 
by the wearer as incapable of further service, was by him thrown into 
an obscure corner of the hovel, and it was only with the morning light 
that Clio discovered the well-known relics. 

11 These shan't be left behind, nohow," she exclaimed, catching them 
up from the dark corner in which they reposed; and hastening to the 
platform of logs on which the whole family were assembled, she seized 
upon a sack not fully crammed, and deposited them within it, just as 
the expected steamer came in sight. 

Whitlaw stood beside her as she did so ; and as soon as she had 
completed the operation, he placed his axe, still good and true, in her 
hands, saying in an accent which spoke some sympathy with her feelings, 

" Dont't mislay nor overlook this, neither, Cli. This is the true 
friend that has made my fortune; and though neither he nor I shall 
have need to work so hard again maybe, yet we don't choose to be 
parted/' 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WIIITLAW. 20 

The next moment the steam was idly hissing to the air, and in an- 
other the two passengers and their uncouth baggage were on board. 

The sigh with which young Jonathan witnessed the departure of his 
aunt without him almost amounted to a sob. It was a fine thing, cer- 
tainly, to know that he was going to leave the Creek behind him for 
ever ; but to have left it in a steam-boat would have been so much finer 
still! One circumstance, however, almost reconciled him to the pri- 
vation : this was the seeing his mother and aunt take their places 
among the passengers on the deck. " Then after all they won't see 
the cabin 1" he exclaimed, " and maybe they might have expected me 
to bide by 'em up there." 

Greatly lightened in spirit by this reflection, he turned to follow his 
father, and in half an hour afterward his native hut was left in the hands 
of its new proprietor, and my hero, followed by his father, and pre- 
ceded by Sue-cherry and a score of fat hogs, leashed together like hounds, 
and kept in tolerably good marching order by Watch, tho old partner 
of their emigration, took for the last time that forest path which it was 

the glory of his father to have made. 

* * * * * * * * * . 

Some apology may be due to the reader for having so long detained 
him in a scene which has so little to excite either interest or sympathy ; 
but the character as well as the history of my hero would have been 
incomplete without it. We have now to transport his family to their 
new dwelling; and having established them there, we shall pass more 
rapidly over the next few years, that we may at once bring him to a 
period when the business of life begins. 



CHAPTER V. 

The new habitation purchased by Jonathan Whitlaw at the distance 
of seven miles from Natchez, though it was, as he very accurately de- 
scribed it, well cleared of everything resembling a tree, was neverthe- 
less, whatever he might think of it, considerably more " in the bush" 
than New Orleans. To speak correctly, Mount Etna was itself not 
11 bush," which, in the language of the country, means uncleared 
ground; though it was surrounded in every direction, but one, with 
forest as primeval as that he had left behind him at Mohana Creek. 

But the clearing in that one direction did in truth make all the dif- 
ference imaginable. For, in the first place, it opened upon various 
paths, leading to a variety of not very distant dwellings; and the prin- 

t 



80 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

cipal of these paths was a good sound corduroy road all the way to Nat- 
chez. In the next place, this near clearing was in part occupied by a 
settlement of some years' standing, separated from that of Whillaw 
only by a few acres of forest, through which ran the boundary line of 
the two properties, and which contained within itself so many essen- 
tial elements of good neighbourhood, that it was able more effectually 
to neutralize the evils usually consequent upon living in the bush than 
all the mere clearing in the world. 

This settlement, already well known for many miles round, had been 
named Reichland by the German proprietor, who, about five years be- 
fore, had taken possession of it as a poor man, but who was now in a 
yery fair way of becoming a rich one. 

Frederick Steinmark was the youngest of a large family of the se- 
condary class of nobility in Bavaria. His father, himself a colonel of 
dragoons, had successively placed five hopeful sons to cut their way to 
doubtful fortune in his own profession ; but Frederick, having very 
early charged himself with a wife, accepted the offer of his eldest 
brother, who had married an heiress of large landed property in West- 
phalia, to settle himself as the cultivator of one of the large farms ac- 
quired by his marriage, and sufficiently near the lady's baronial man- 
sion to ensure to tbe strongly-attached brothers easy and constant 
intercourse. Frederick Steinmark was of a character so essentially 
exalted in itself, that whatever station he had filled must have received 
rather than conferred dignity by his belonging to it. As a cultivator 
of the ground, he was at once the most active, persevering, patient, and 
enterprising. His clear and commanding intellect showed itself in- 
evitably in all he did ; but its application was always regulated by a 
species of practical good sense, which those who did not fully com- 
prehend his character were often surprised to find in a man whose spe- 
culations were of so lofty a nature. 

For several years after the marriage of the two brothers, which took 
place within the same year, their vicinity was a source of the truest 
happiness to both ; but a circumstance then occurred which, though 
it rather increased than lessened the mutual esteem and affection which 
existed between them, completely poisoned the pleasure of their daily 
intercourse. The baroness and her humbler sister, both presented a 
son to their husbands within the first year of their marriage. This 
formed at first a sort of lie between them, so numberless were the little 
circumstances interesting to the one which were infallibly interesting 
to the other also — but it was in fact the only one ; for nature never 
formed two beings less calculated to assimilate than the haughty, ar- 
tificial, cold-hearted baroness, Karoline von Uberkiimpfer, and the 
gentle, simple, good and kind Mary Smith, whose unaffected natural 
graces had captivated the heart of the young Frederick Steinmark in 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 31 

one ot those rambles to England, which neither a slender purse, nor 
the necessity of devoting himself to some profession, had prevented the 
ardent-minded young man from making to most of the countries of 
Europe. 

The Baron Steinmark loved and valued his charming sister-in-law 
as she deserved ; but not all his influence could prevent his lady from 
treating her as almost a servile dependant ; and nothing but the de- 
voted love which Mary bore her husband could have enabled her to 
endure year after year the series of petty impertinences which the 
weak, but wilful-minded, baroness delighted to inflict. 

Unfortunately for Mary, the high respect, perfect love, and entire 
esteem felt for her by her husband produced an effect respecting the 
intercourse between the sisters exactly the reverse of what they ought 
to have done. For his noble sister he had so utter and profound a 
contempt, that for years it never entered into his imagination that his 
intelligent, right-thinking wife could be other than an object of respect 
and deference to her. 

Frederick Steinmark was absent-minded to excess ; innumerable 
circumstances daily passed before his eyes without his being in the 
least degree conscious of them ; and from the hour they married, Mary 
had never in any single instance called his attention — which, absent as 
he was, could ever be roused by her — to what was likely to give him 
pain. 

When at length, therefore, accident chanced to open his eyes at 
once and for ever to the fact, that the woman he reverenced and loved 
was the object of the most insolent contempt to his brother's rich and 
noble, but most silly wife, his resolution was at once taken ; he de- 
cided irrevocably upon leaving his farm and the neighbourhood. The 
baron knew his brother too well to believe for a moment that it would 
be possible to shake his resolution : there had long been a sort of tacit 
understanding between him and Mary on the subject of the baroness ; 
upon every occasion on which her insolence broke out in his presence, 
his respect and affection appeared to be redoubled ; and though not a 
word was said on the subject, the keeping the unsuspicious Frederick 
from perceiving it became a mutual object. 

It would but delay the narrative unnecessarily were I to recount the 
particulars of the scene which at length opened Frederick's eyes to the 
position which his wife held in the estimation of the haughty baroness. 
Her son and heir — who was moreover her only child — was an agent 
in it ; and had Mary wanted any reason beyond her husband's will to 
reconcile her to leaving her comfortable home, it would have been 
furnished by the fear that the baron's anger towards the boy, if often 
called forth in the same way, might generate a feeling between the 
father and son deeply injurious to the happiness of both. 



32 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

One long evening's confidential conversation with his brother sufficed 
to decide whither Frederick and his family should betake themselves 
in search of a new home. The years of union which had given one 
son to the baron, had brought four boys and a girl to Frederick ; and 
the future destination of these precious boys had already become a 
theme of anxious speculation to him. No sooner had he decided upon 
leaving the protection and immediate neighbourhood of his brother, 
than the idea of the new world suggested itself, as offering the best hope, 
not only for the immediate support, but for the ultimate provision of 
his family. When he first named it, however, the baron vehemently 
opposed the project, which he declared had less of kindness and of 
wisdom in it than he had looked for. But the scheme had taken 
strong possession of Frederick's mind, and never through their lives 
had the elder ever found it possible to resist the forcible eloquence of 
the younger brother on any point upon which it had been fervently 
employed. So, ere they parted, the German noble, though sorely 
against his inclination, felt himself obliged to avow, that if he were able 
to persuade this enterprising brother to abandon his American project, 
he had no power to propose a better. 

The financial arrangements were soon settled between them, for no 
difficulties arose but such as were generated by a struggle of liberality. 
It was settled that the baron should himself become the purchaser of 
all his brother's large stock, as well as of the furniture, and improve- 
ments of the house and premises. Beyond this, nothing could per- 
suade Frederick to go, in accepting the urgent offers of his wealthy 
brother ; who, either as a gift or a loan, was most anxious to press 
upon him such a sum as he thought might secure him from every in- 
convenience in the prosecution of his enterprise. But strong as were 
the feelings which led to this expedition, they had not driven Frederick 
Steinmark to undertake a mode of life of which he was ignorant : at 
least all the information that books could give on the subject was fa- 
miliar to him, and he well knew that the sum he could command w r as 
fully sufficient to afford every facility to a settler whose intention it was 
to bring up his family in habits of active industry. 

In the month of March, 18 — , Frederick Steinmark, his wife and 
five children, arrived at New Orleans ; and in less than a month after- 
wards they were inhabiting a large and partially cleared estate which 
they had purchased near Natchez. From that period, to the month of 
August, eight years afterwards, at which lime my hero and his family 
became their neighbours, not a year, not a month — perhaps not a day 
had passed, which had not tended to improve the house and estate of 
Reichland ; and though no slave had ever worked for a single hour 
upon it, the land was held to be the best cultivated and most productive 
in the neighbourhood. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 33 

But notwilhstanding this success, the task of settling a European 
family in a forest of Louisiana had not been performed without pri- 
vations and annoyances of many kinds : but these chiefly fell upon 
Mary, and were met and conquered with a degree of quiet resolution 
which robbed them of half their evil power. 

The situation of the Steinmark family was in truth exactly that best 
calculated to encounter the hazards of emigration with advantage. In 
addition to health of mind and body, they brought to the task, zeal, 
courage, industry, patience, and perseverance, together with both 
knowledge and money enough to spare them the necessity of enduring 
the first dreadful destitution of all things, which those who enter the 
forest with the axe alone must abide; or the mortification, almost 
greater still, of bestowing labour and care in vain, because ignorantly. 

"When it was known at Reichland that a family of new-comers had 
arrived at Mount Etna, the first thought which took possession of the 
whole Steinmark household w r as — " what can we do to help them?" 

11 They cannot have any milk yet, mother — or, at any rate, any 
butter," observed Lotte Steinmark, who, at the age of eleven, was 
dairy woman-in-chief of Reichland : " may I send over two of my 
pretty pats that I churned last night? Fritz will take them for me." 

" And a loaf, Lottchen, may be welcome too, I think," replied her 
mother : " nobody can bake in a moment. Go, Fritz — and you, 
Karl, go too," she continued, addressing her two eldest sons; '' take 
the loaf, and some of Lotte's butter, and ask if there is anything we 
can do to assist them." 



CHAPTER VI. 

The friendly embassy from Reichland found the Whitlaw family in 
a slate of great confusion; but this was occasioned quite as much by 
their amazement at finding themselves the inhabitants of a house with 
four rooms besides the store, and three of them with real glass windows, 
as from any embarrassment caused by the absence or disorder of the 
ordinary comforts of existence. Those who have been well broken in 
to the system expressively designated " getting along,'' have at least 
this advantage over the rest of the human race : namely, that nothing 
which can befall them can ever put them much out of their way. In 
addition to this, Portia and Clio were, at the very instant the young 
Sleinmarks entered, labouring to stretch their minds to the compre- 
hension, that the seven chairs, four tables, three crocks, two spiders, 

3 



34 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

six plates, four cups, etc. etc. etc., which Jonathan senior and Jona- 
than junior were unloading from a cart at the door, were really and 
truly all for their own use and benefit. So that, instead of a moment 
of distress, it was a moment of triumph; and when Fritz, in an accent 
of kindness, and almost of compassion, said, addressing Whitlaw, 
"Can we help you, sir?" Clio burst into an irresistible chuckle of 
delight at this first opportunity of display, and exclaimed with one of 
her happiest and broadest grins, " Look here, boys!" 

The two lads, however, altogether mistook her meaning; but look- 
ing in the direction she pointed, at the comfortless confusion which 
surrounded her, and believing that they were called upon to pity it, 
replied at the same moment, " It must be very bad for you, indeed; 
but if you will tell us what to do, we can soon help to make it belter.'' 

"Bad!" exclaimed Clio ; "now that beats the union! But you 
look dreadful good-natured, and will give me a hand with the meal- 
tub anyhow, for I must be after baking a morsel to eat, I expect ; and 
t'other, maybe, will be looking up a few slicks for me, while my man 
Jonathan here seasons one of them fine new spiders with a little fresh 
water and a good rubbing." 

At this mention of bread-making, the young Karl displayed the 
treasures of his basket, saying, " My mother thought you would be 
too busy to bake directly, and so she sent me over with this." 

" Does your mother keep store, my lad?" said Whitiaw, coming 
forward. " I was told there was no store within five miles of Mount 
Etna/' 

" I do not believe there is, sir," returned Fritz, who, suddenly re- 
collecting that the person he was speaking to was himself about to 
commence storekeeper for the whole region, comprehended in an in- 
stant the sort of alarm which his voice indicated ; and the laughing 
blue eyes of the young German exchanged a furtive glance with his 
brother as he added, " But though we do not keep a store, sir, we 
make bread ; and we shall be very happy if you will accept a loaf of it, 
lo save you the trouble of baking till you are a little settled." 

" Accept the loaf," said Whitlaw, taking it in his hands and exa- 
mining its texture. "Why, it's wheat, and weighs a matter of ten 
pounds. We shan't have no such bread for a while, maybe, lo pay 
it back, my lad. " 

" Oh! we shall not want it, " said the young Karl gaily ; "for we 
are not going into a new house, you know. " 

"Well, that's considerable civil of them that sent you, my lads, 
anyhow — and we must do a turn for it, I expect, when it's wanted. " 

While this conversation was going on, the young Jonathan had 
been occupied by diving into the basket, and at length produced two 
half-pounds of Lotte's dainty butter, one in each hand, held with a 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 35 

tight grasp by his not very delicate fingers. The German boys again 
looked at each oilier and prepared to depart. 

"And is that there elegant butter a free gift loo?" exclaimed the 
delighted Clio, receiving it on a wooden platter from her nephew's 
hands. 

"Yes, surely," replied Fritz courteously, "if you will do my little 
sister the favour to accept it. " 

"If that don't beat all natur!" exclaimed Clio again. "Well 
now, I do expect that we be come among lovely clever people. 
What do you say to this, Porchy? — isn't it one thing to come to 
Mohana Creek, and another to come to Mount Etna? If we don't 
have an elegant coffering to-night, I expect it will be our own fault. " 

The good-humoured boys had at least the pleasure of perceiving 
that their embassy was productive of great satisfaction to the parly for 
whose beneQt it was intended; and with this report they returned 
home, though in the delivery of it a little propensity to smile at the 
oddities of the new-comers displayed itself and produced a reproof 
from their mother. 

"I will be revenged of you for suspecting me of being inclined to 
laugh at 'poor hardworking country folks,' mother mine," said the 
saucy Fritz, "for I will be present when you first see them yourself, 
and I know how you will try to look grave and kind — and yet be ready 
to laugh too." 

Fritz, however, w r as quite wrong. His mother felt not the least 
disposition to laugh when introduced to her new neighbours. It look 
her but a short time to understand them all very thoroughly, except 
the boy — and she confessed that the little Jonathan produced an un- 
pleasant effect upon her, because his young head ever seemed to have 
wilhin it more than he appeared willing to display ; a peculiarity at 
his age which gave her, as she avowed, a sort of instinctive fear of the 
boy, though she knew not exactly why. 

Of the other members of the family her judgment was quickly and 
correctly formed. She considered Whitlaw as respectable for his 
active and persevering industry; Porlia as pitiable for the hopeless 
languor of ill health which constantly oppressed her ; and Clio as 
estimable and even admirable in no common degree, from the devo- 
tion of her atlachment to her family, and the rare and complete 
absence of every species of selfishness. The coarse breeding of the 
whole party was no annoyance to her whatever. The refinement of 
Mary Steinmark lay not on the surface; and in this, as well as in a 
multitude of other instances which had occurred since her residence 
in Louisiana, she fell without distaste into frequent and familiar inter- 
course with neighbours whose minds she knew could not comprehend 
the language of hers, and to whom therefore her mind never spoke, 



36 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

except in those few sentences of universal dialect which relate to 
domestic usefulness and household cares. The rest was for her hus- 
band and her children: nor did she ever lament that the circle in 
which she was known, and valued at her worth, was not a larger one. 

It was some days before Frederick Steinmark chanced tos ee either 
of his new neighbours, and it was longer still before he perceived any- 
thing about them sufficiently interesting to greatly awaken his at- 
tention. When Whillaw first took possession of the place, his whole 
attention was directed to the arrangement and management of his large 
store; and perhaps the only affair of great and important interest to 
man on which Frederick Steinmark found it impossible to fix his at- 
tention was the business of a retail store. He had therefore in fact 
almost forgotten his new neighbour, when Whillaw himself made a 
visit to Reichland, and desired to speak to " the master." 

He was immediately ushered into a room exceedingly unlike any 
he had ever before entered ; so much so, indeed, that, contrary to his 
usual habits, his business was for a moment forgotten as he looked 
around him. 

The room was large and lofty ; the walls were neither papered nor 
plastered, but arranged neatly enough, with smooth deal boards, laid 
one over the other in the manner that shipwrights call clinker-built. 
The floor was covered with peculiarly fine Indian malting ; and the 
four large windows, which opened upon a long glade of the forest, well 
cleared, but still retaining a few scattered groups of fine trees, were 
furnished with blinds of the same beautiful manufacture, but of a still 
finer fabric. One side of the room was covered from the floor nearly 
to the ceiling with books ; on another hung an admirable portrait of 
the Baron Steinmark ; and on a table beneath it lay sundry unintelli- 
gible objects — mathematical instruments, models of agricultural imple- 
ments, and several articles belonging to a chemical apparatus which 
Steinmark had been using. On one side stood an electrical machine, 
on the other a pair of large globes ; while a variety of tables of all sorts 
and sizes in different parts of the room, some covered with needle- 
work, others with implements for drawing, some prepared for writing 
and some for reading, would have told a stranger more initiated into 
such mysteries than Whillaw, that the room was the usual habitation 
of a large family accustomed to occupation. 

The whole aspect of the apartment was, however, such as might 
very naturally surprise a back-woodsman, who fancied he was come 
to visit a man of his own class. Had the intruder been less intelli- 
gent, he would have been less puzzled ; but Whillaw plainly per- 
ceived that there was present before his eye much more than had ever 
been dreamed of in his philosophy ; and, as before stated, a short space 
was occupied ere he entered upon the business which brought him 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 37 

Ihere, in looking round upon these objects, which were alike new and 
incomprehensible. 

At length, however, he recovered the bold and pithy abruptness of 
his usual manner. 

11 I expect maybe that you arn't much of a cultivator after all ; but 
what I corned for, neighbour, was to ask which side of the hollow lhat 
lies in the bush between your lands and mine I should run my zig-zag? 
But maybe you arn't competent to tell f 

'■' Mr. Whitlaw, I presume," said Frederick Steinmark, rising to 
meet him. 

" The same, sir," w 7 as the reply. 

" I believe, sir, I shall be able to show you where your fence should 
be placed," resumed the German — whose union with an English- 
woman had made thelanguage of America as familiar to him as his own ; 
and going to one of the numerous tables, he look thence a small roll, 
which being opened, displayed a map of the estate of Reichland ; the 
hollow, which was in fact an important water-course, being very dis- 
tinctly marked as within its boundary. 

" Where my property ends, Mr. Whitlaw 7 , I imagine that yours 
must begin ; and therefore, as you perceive, your fence must run at 
the distance of one hundred yards on the western side of the * water- 
course.' " 

Jonathan Whitlaw knew this perfectly well before he made the pre- 
sent inquiry ; but having, with his usual sagacity, perceived that this 
"■ hollow," as he chose to term it, might by a little ingenuity be con- 
verted into a very valuable water " privilege," he thought it was at 
least worth while to try if he could not persuade his neighbour either 
that it belonged to him, or at any rate lhat, being a matter of no con- 
sequence, it could make no difference whether he included it within 
his fence or not. He now saw that upon the question of boundary his 
neighbour was a match for him ; but it did not follow that he must 
know the value of the " bit" upon which he had set his heart, and ac- 
cordingly he proceeded to state his wishes, but with an air of the most 
perfect indifference. 

11 Ah, well, that rough bit don't matter much, I expect, nor a yard 
or two of bush neither, to such a large tract as yours — or mine either, 
for that matter ; so if it don't make no difference to you, neighbour, I 
calculate that I'll run the zig-zag on this side the gap, just for the sake 
of two or three sugar maples that are scanty with me — but you've got 
bushels of 'em." 

11 It is plain, Mr. Whitlaw," replied the German with a good-hu- 
moured smile, " that you are a stranger here as yet, or you would not 
consider my water-course as so trifling a concern. In cultivating so 
large an estate as this with a small capital, it is necessary to do things 



38 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

by degrees; but I fully intend in about two years, when my boy will 
be old enough to undertake the business of a mill, to turn the drains of 
my plantations into that water-course, and erect a mill over it, which, 
if I am not deceived in the quantity of water I expect to obtain, will be 
able to work nine months out of twelve." 

This unreserved exposure of plans and projects, in which it was by 
no means the custom of tbe country to indulge even to familiar friends, 
struck Whitlaw as a proof, that however ably his neighbour might have 
conceived the scheme (which was, in truth, exactly the same as he had 
himself imagined), he was nevertheless but a soft man, who could not 
be very difficult to manage. 

When Steinmark ceased speaking, his visiter shook his head, and 
smiled with a look of much intelligence. " You're counting a little too 
fast there, master, I expect," he said, " No man as knows the country 
well would ever think of laying out good dollars in such a wild scheme 
as building a mill over that bit of a dry hollow. Howsomever, that's 
no business of mine, and I hope the ground will change its nalurin 
time to accommodate your son ; but if so be as this scheme isn't to be 
tried for two years to come, I calculate that you won't have no ob- 
jection to my having the sugar maples till such lime as you sets about 
your mill?" 

" The sugar maples are certainly not of much consequence, being 
in great abundance all round us," replied Steinmark; " but do you 
propose to enclose those you mention within your zig-zag?" 

" Well, then, I think I may as well — and at any rate a zig-zag is 
easy moved at any time," returned Jonathan Whitlaw. 

There was such a fund of deep- seated genuine frankness and honour 
in the character of Frederick Steinmark, that it was not very easy to 
awaken suspicion within him; but Whitlaw's cool assumption of his 
consent to enclose a valuable part of his property within his own fence 
was too plain an indication of his spirit to be mistaken, and it was 
therefore with equal promptness and decision that the master of the 
house replied : " No, Mr. Whitlaw, your fence must not enclose my 
properly, but only your own, sir." 

Whitlaw, as we have seen, was a shrewd, and in most things which 
regarded his interest, a right-judging man ; but on this occasion he 
had found himself at fault, and then blundered most egregiously. Ac- 
customed, as all men must be whose lives are spent in turning every- 
thing to profit, to judge quickly and act promptly, the wits of the 
proprietor of Mount Etna had not been idle during the interval in 
which he was occupied in taking note of the singular phenomena which 
surrounded him on entering Frederick Steinmark's apartment. He 
knew little, it is true, of the use and destination of most of the objects 
he saw there ; but he immediately concluded that the man whose hours 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 39 

were spent in occupations, of which he himself knew nothing,, was 
likely enough to be ignorant, in his turn, of those points of human 
wisdom of which he knew a great deal. 

" What should he know of a water privilege?" was the reflection 
that occurred to him, as he contemplated the various gimcracks, which 
to him had greatly the appearance of playthings, with which the room 
was filled ; — ' ' no more than a piccaninny nigger, I'll be bound for it :" 
and thereupon followed the short conversation that has been related. 

Frederick Sleinmark rose as he spoke the concluding w 7 ords ; and 
there was that in his aspect which showed Whitlaw, however little he 
had been accustomed to study such a one, that the conference was 
ended, and nothing to be hoped from the ignorance or folly of the 
owner of Reichland. 

The feeling of vexation and resentment with which this conviction 
was accompanied might appear greater than the occasion could account 
for, were the state of Whitlaw's mind as he left the house to be fully 
described. That a man should inwardly swear to take vengeance 
against a neighbour solely because he chose to retain possession of 
what was his own, might be deemed unnatural — yet so it was ; and 
neither time nor reflection ever removed from Whitlaw's mind the 
conviction that he was an oppressed and injured man, that Frederick 
Steinmark had used him ill, and that he had the right, as well as the 
will, to revenge himself for it at every convenient opportunity. 

This schism between the heads of the two families did not, how- 
ever, in any degree destroy the friendly feeling which the constant 
performance of kind offices on one side, and the easy acceptance of 
them on the other, occasioned. After a passing smile at the foolish 
fellow's saucy attempt to invade his property, Steinmark remembered 
it no more ; and the only effect which the circumstance left on his 
feelings was, that he scarcely ever spoke of his new neighbour again. 

Clio was indeed the principal link between the two houses. Her 
excellent qualities were fully appreciated by every individual of the 
Steinmark family, and in return she would at any time have walked 
through scorching fire or freezing water to do them service. 

During the first few days of their intercourse, the four Steinmark 
boys made various good-natured advances to propitiate the friendship 
of Jonathan Jefferson ; but the principle of repulsion was too strongly, 
though unconsciously, at work within the parties to permit anything 
like friendship to exist between them. The Steinmarks were all of 
them clever intelligent lads — so, most certainly, was Jonathan Jeffer- 
son Whitlaw; but it would be more possible for a Newton to feel and 
to find sympathy with a being of a mind positively imbecile, than for 
honour, honesty, and sincerity to bind itself to wily cunning and to 
crafty meanness. 



40 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

The dislike of the Steinmarks for young Whitlaw only demonstrated 
itself, however, by a cessation of those little sociabilities with which 
at his first arrival he was always greeted by them whenever accident 
brought them together. Neighbourly civility, and ever-ready cheerful 
good-will, whenever it was in their power to be useful, were still at 
the service of the whole Whitlaw family ; but unless something of this 
sort was called for, the intercourse between them was not frequent. 

On the part of young Jonathan, the feeling of dislike was both 
stronger and more definite : he at once feared, envied, and despised 
the whole family ; and he could, had it been necessary or profitable, 
have given excellent good reasons for each and all of these feelings. 
As it was, however, he deemed it "wisest, discreetest, best," to say 
nothing about it, but to receive in peace and quietness the many little 
advantages which the good-nature and liberality of their neighbours 
afforded him. 

There was nevertheless one point on which no calculations of inte- 
rest appeared to interfere wilh the open and sincere avowal of his 
sentiments respecting Fritz, Karl, Hermann, and Henrich Steinmark ; 
and this was as to the mode of their education. Jonathan Jefferson 
had ascertained in his first conversation wilh Henrich, who was nearly 
his own age, that neither he nor any of his brothers had ever been at 
school ; and the profound contempt this avowal generated must have 
have had something agreeable and soothing in its nature, for never did 
young Jonathan sit down after he heard it, with the intention of being 
particularly comfortable, without alluding to it. 

Nor was the pleasant emotion produced by the mere mention of this 
parental neglect on the part of Frederick Steinmark the only advan- 
tage of which it was productive at Mount Etna. No sooner was the 
fact made known to Whitlaw, than he determined at once upon send- 
ing young Jonathan to school, though the doing so would rob him of 
services which the active business of the store rendered daily more 
important. 

Neither was this the only measure which the spirit of rivalship ac- 
celerated in the Whitlaw family. Frederick Steinmark's large estate 
had not a single negro upon it; the labour it required was performed 
by himself and his boys, assisted by two German servants who had 
accompanied them from the Father-land. This again was a subject 
of unmitigated contempt and ridicule. In Louisiania, as Whitlaw re- 
marked, nobody that was any body would ever think of getting along 
without a slave. It was plain that, with all their big clearings and 
grand house, the Steinmarks were nothing but a set of beggarly hard- 
working foreigners, that did not know what it was to live like gentle- 
men and Americans. So Jonathan Whitlaw sent his son to a school 
at Natchez, where he was to be taught reading, writing, ciphering, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 41 

"and the sciences/' for fifteen dollars a quarter; and moreover, he 
purchased two stout negroes at the first market held for the sale of 
such commodilies in his neighbourhood. 

The materials for happiness must vary according to the nature of 
those for whose use they are intended. There are some men to whom 
the acquisition of a slave would cause a feeling of shame : and there 
are some boys whose hearts would swell with sorrow at leaving for 
the first time a gentle mother's side, to become one of the jarring ele- 
ments which constitute a school. But in the case of the Whillaws, 
both father and son experienced feelings of the most unequivocal de- 
light from these circumstances. Instead of feeling shame, Jonathan 
senior swelled with pride each time his bold triumphant eye met the 
fearful glance of the poor wretches he had purchased ; and Jonathan 
junior had need of all his discretion to conceal the outward expression 
of the joy he felt at being within reach of daily watching the knaveries, 
cruelties, debaucheries, and drunkenness never absent where a slave 
population disgraces the soil, and which, if report say true, maybe 
found in as great fulness of abomination at Natchez as at any point of 
earth afflicted with this curse. ; 



CHAPTER VII 

The following eight years of the life of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw 
must be passed over very rapidly by his historian. Sometimes during 
this interval he was at school, but oftener constrained by his still 
prosperous father to take a spell of labour with him at* Mount Etna. 

The youth, however, learned to read, to write, and to cast up an 
account ; and moreover, he had been discovered at the seminary by 
his old steam-boat acquaintance, Colonel Dart, who proved to be, as 
he had himself stated, a personage every way able to assist the youth 
in his meritorious wish of advancing his fortune. 

Colonel Dart possessed the largest estate and was much the largest 
slave-holder in the neighbourhood of Natchez. x4s he was accounted 
a man of vast wealth, it must be presumed that his affairs were well 
managed, his overseers faithful and careful of his interest, and the nu- 
merous gangs of negroes who worked his plantations as well-ordered 
as they were profitable. But though all this might be, and perhaps 
was the case, it is nevertheless a certain fact, that Colonel Dart, though 
a bachelor and member of Congress to boot, did not always repose 
upon roses. Either from natural disposition, or from having some 
secret cause of doubt and dread upon his mind, this gentleman passed 



42 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

his life in a state of gnawing anxiety which the worst flogged negro on 
his estate would have had no cause to envy. 

Many were the schemes he had imagined by which he might obtain 
private and accurate knowledge of all that was going on among the 
negroes themselves, and also among the while overseers appointed to 
superintend them ; and the first idea suggested to him by the display 
of character he had witnessed in young Whillaw was, (hat if he could 
get him sufficiently educated, and attach him closely to his service by 
gratifying his avarice and ambition, the total dependence on his favour 
in which it would be easy to keep the son of a squatter might prove 
a better guarantee for his fidelity, than any he had yet been able 
to put in action with the confidential clerks he had hitherto em- 
ployed. 

This scheme was in some degree defeated by the improved condition 
of the Whitlaw family; but the idea of one day being able to convert 
to his own especial use and benefit the courage, activity, and spirit he 
had remarked in the boy, was never lost sight of by the judicious 
planter ; and he took care, during the time that young Jonathan passed 
at Natchez, to impress his observing mind with such a conviction of 
his wealth and generosity as to generate a most ardent desire on the 
part of the youth to live within the sunshine of his favour. 

But for several years Jonathan senior saw more certain profit to 
himself in keeping his son at home than in parting with him ; and it 
was not till he was obliged to confess that the stripling was grown into 
a man, that the desired arrangement look place. 

At the age of eighteen and a half, Jonathan Jefferson Whillaw was a 
tall handsome youlh, with a quick restless eye which rarely met that 
of Ihe person he conversed with — thin lips, but a set of very fine teelh 
within them — a slow and deliberate manner of speaking — and an air 
of so much self-possession and confidence, that he was supposed by 
all who saw him to be at least two years older than he really was. 

Great as was the desire of Ihe youth himself to become one of Colo- 
nel Dart's family, it is probable that even then his father might have 
made some difficulty of parting with so useful and efficient a personage, 
had not such an alteration taken place in his own family as rendered 
the absence of his son rather convenient than otherwise. Poor Portia, 
instead of finding her health improve by her change of residence, fell 
into a dropsy within a few years after their arrival at Mount Etna, 
which in three months put an end to her languishing existence. 

Her death was certainly no great loss to any one, and Mr. Jonathan 
Whitlaw soon conceived hopes that it would prove to him a source of 
gain. One of the most constant customers at his store was a Miss Be- 
linda Tomkins, a young lady of about thirty-five years of age, who 
had recently by the death of an uncle become the owner of three stout 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WIUTLAW. 4S 

male and two female negroes. This noble inheritance immediately 
attracted the attention of the neighbourhood, and more than one 
owner of a settlement who lacked sufficient hands to work it were 
meditating an attack upon the heiress's heart ; but the prompt measures 
of the widower baffled them all, and Miss Belinda avowed her readiness 
to become Mrs. Whillaw the second, on condition that "the big son 
that the poor woman what was gone had left behind her should not be 
kept at home everlasting to trouble her/' 

Poor Clio heard not of this condition, or it might have broken her 
heart ; but it was complied with on the part of the father, and thus 
was Jonathan Jefferson left at liberty to accept the noble offers made 
him by his patron, and to become the inmate of a mansion infinitely 
finer than the finest steam-boat on the river. 

Colonel Dart had hitherto spoken but vaguely to his young friend of 
the duties which it would be his special task to fulfil ; and it was not 
till they met at breakfast on the day following young Whillaw's ad- 
mission as an inmate at Paradise Plantation, that he began to enter 
upon the explanation of his wishes in a manner sufficiently clear and 
precise to give the confidential clerk a definite idea of what they would 
be. 

The time was well chosen for insuring the willing obedience of the 
happy youth to any commands that could be laid on him. The display 
of Colonel Dart's breakfast-table might have bribed a spirit less pliant 
to follow wherever interest led than that of Jonathan Jefferson. The 
early and delicious spring of that southern climate had already 
brought a world of bright and beautiful flowers into blossom in the 
spacious garden upon which the breakfast-room opened. A group of 
luxuriant orange-trees sent their fragrance through the large windows ; 
and the flocks of green birds that ventured to hang upon the branches 
of the locust-trees, while they pecked the insects from their bark, 
looked like the brightest emeralds in Aladdin's enchanted garden. 
The whole scene indeed was one of luxury and wealth : the breakfast- 
table was spread with dainties, of which the most ''elegant drams" 
made a part ; and the great man who was the envied lord of all sat 
opposite young Jonathan, courteously pressing him to partake the good 
cheer, and treating him so completely as his equal and friend, that it 
is not surprising if the happy youth received every word which fell 
from his lips as if he had been listening to the law and the prophets. 
It was thus the dialogue ran : — 

" You find yourself more pleasant here, Jonathan, than at the 
wooding station, or at the store either, I guess? I expect you would 
not over-well approve to go back again ?" 

11 No, colonel — I calculate that would not suit me in no way. I 



44 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

always prefer to progress — the turning back would make me giddy, 
I guess." 

" Then progress you shall, my fine fellow, or the fault will be your 
own, and none other. I think I must begin to let you a little into my 

confidence, Jonathan, and then we shall understand one another ." 

A glass of fine rum was here proffered and accepted. " How many 
niggers, Jonathan, do you calculate I may own on this plantation — 
taking in the sugar, rice, cotton grounds, household gang, breeders, 
and all V 

This question piqued the sagacity and judgment of the confidential 
clerk, and he pondered upon it so long that his hot-blooded patron 
waxed impatient. "How the devil should you know, boy? You 
may say that straight off, and no shame neither. I'll tell you, Jo- 
nathan : I own five hundred — sound in wind and limb, and some of 
them the most splendid patterns that your sharp eyes ever spied. What 
d'ye say to that, my lad ?" 

" Tis grand, colonel. I'd rather own fivehundred negurs than be 
President. Why, they must sweat into dollars uncountable." 

" Pretty well for that — and my dollars may roll which way I like. 
But for all that, Jonathan, 'tis no joke now-a-days to own five hun- 
dred blacks, I can tell you, boy. While those infernal varment, the 
missionary hell-hounds, that the devil has taken it into his head to 
send on earth for the alone purpose of plaguing honest men — while 
they are creeping about like so many cursed copper-heads among the 
canes, 'lis no holiday to have five hundred slaves, and know that the 
best among 'em would eat your heart if they could catch it, and a 
missionary saying grace the while." 

" But we've got no missionaries at Natchez, T expect ?" replied the 
young man, looking rather anxiously for the colonel's reply. 

"And who's to know that, Jonathan.? You're a smart lad, Whit- 
law, and that's the reason I've got you here — but you've a thing or 
two to learn yet, my fine fellow, before you'll be able to tell me 
where there are missionaries, and where there are not. Maybe you 

calculate upon their walking about with a cassock and bands? I 

wish they did; I wish to God they did, boy, and I'd have my heel 
upon their throats slick enough. But that's not the way in these 
dreadful times, Jonathan. Those viperous varmint that steal out to 
Liberia to pick a living out of the nigger beasts, always take a spell of 
canting among the plantations before they set off ; and sometimes they 
come in one shape, and sometimes in another : there's no knowing 
when you're free from 'em. What d'ye think of catching a horse- 
doctor that pretended he was going to open a store for drugs — what 
d'ye think, now, of calchinghim in the fact of praying with one of my 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 45 

black devils that was dying of the small-pox ? True, upon my soul ; 
I was in such an unknown rage that I had the nigger flogged before 
my eyes as long as there was life in him ; but as to the while villain, I 
was obliged to let him go, because at that lime nobody had began lo 
tbing of taking their own vengeance upon whites ; but now, my boy, 
if we can catch 'em, the business lies in our own hand, as right it 
should. For where will you find any one to do justice upon the 
sneaking, canting, rebellious rascals with such hearty good-will as 
we that suiters by 'em ? And there's no danger at all,— at least there 
won't be in a very little time ; for it's as clear as the sun in heaven, 
that we shall be supported and approved in Slate, Senate, and Congress, 
let us do what we will in self-defence." 

This doctrine of " self-defence" was already in some degree fami- 
liar to the young man; and, in common with the great majority of 
slave-holders, Master Jonathan deemed it a most righteous and 
Christian-like doctrine. Accordingly he answered with all the zeal and 
spirit his patron wished, and with eloquence warmed by a second 
bumper of rum. 

" I'll tell you what it is, Colonel : the man what has not courage 
to do vengeance for himself, don't deserve the protection of the law in 
a free country. It's all very well for the pitiful slaves of the Old 
World to sit still when they're injured, twirling their thumbs maybe, 
till some feller in a big wig takes their part, and pretends to set all 
right again. That may do, colonel, in the Old World, but it won't 
serve for us. What's freedom for, if we can't do what we like with 
our own born slaves? There's nothing so despisable in my mind as 
a man what's afraid to kick the life out of his own nigger if he sees 
good. If 'twasn't for this, I don't see where our great superiority over 
the queer English folks lies, that every man in Congress tells us of as 
soon as he gels on his legs. Isn't it that each one man of us here is 
free to do just what he likes, and nothing else? 'Tis that gives us the 
right lo call ourselves free, and without it I don't see but we're just as 
bad off as the fools t'other side the water." 

Though this was a much longer harangue than Colonel Dart was 
ever in the habit of listening to, except from himself, the sentiments 
were in such perfect accordance with his own, that he not only per- 
mitted his confidential clerk to come lo the conclusion of it without 
interruption, but very nearly embraced him when he had done. 

" You are a glorious fellow, Jonathan," he exclaimed ; " upon my 
soul, you are! Young as you are, you know how to utter the senti- 
ments of a free people. I shall ever consider you in the light of a 
friend, and not of a dependant; and if you will only — " continued the 
planter, lowering his voice, — " if you will only look out for the ene- 
mies of the good cause, and prove your noble free-born principles in 



46 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

practice, you shall find that an American citizen knows how to be 
grateful. And after all, Jonathan, what can I do with my money, un- 
less it is to reward a true friend? What family have I got, Jonathan, 
to trouble myself about? Half-a-dozen yellow girls and their brats. 
They may be mine, or they may be another man's ; and I'm sure I 
don't care a cent whether they're mine or not, provided I've the pri- 
vilege of owning them : therefore you may see, my dear boy, that 
there's a fine opening at Paradise Plantation for a bold young fellow 
that would prove himself my friend." 

Young Whitlaw sucked in the honied sweetness of these vague but 
glorious words; and raising his eyes to those of the colonel, with a 
more fixed and steady glance than was usual with him, he replied : 

" Try me, colonel, and maybe you'll find me worth something." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The eight years which had produced such important changes in the 
Whitlaw family, had not passed without leaving their marks behind 
them over the inhabitants of Reichland. 

Fritz, the eldest son, had persuaded his father, though not without 
difficulty, to permit his trying his fortune with a merchant in Phila- 
delphia, in whose counting-house he had been placed with a consi- 
derable premium by his uncle. For neither time, nor the reiterated 
assurances of Frederick Sleinmark, that money was in no way required 
for the prosperity of himself and his family, could prevent the baron's 
affection and liberality from showing themselves whenever he could 
find or invent an excuse for making a remittance. Karl, for the last 
five years, had been in possession of a well-constructed and most pro- 
fitable mill, situated exactly at that point of the hollow way where the 
maple-trees grew which Jonathan Whitlaw bad so greatly wished to 
enclose. Hermann was his father's right-hand, and his right-arm too, 
in the management of the farm ; but Henrich, the pale and meditative 
Henrich, though only five years old when transplanted to the soil on 
which he grew, had still the air of an exotic. It was not that the cli- 
mate disagreed with him ; for though he looked delicate, and was too 
tall for his age, having had the full stature of a man, when he had the 
muscle of only seventeen years to support it, he was not in bad health, 
but, as his mother used to say, Henrich's imagination had never got 
acclimated. The history, the music, the literature of his own coun- 
try, were the funds from which he drew all the ideas which constituted 
his happiness. Henrich was the only one of the family who, in reply 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON VVHITLAW. 47 

to the constant inquiries of the Baron Steinmark, whether he could send 
nolhing from the Old World which might assist in making their retired 
abode more agreeable, had boldly answered "Yes, — books, dearest 
uncle, German books, and engravings of the hills and valleys of our 
falher-land, and songs such as our peasants sing when they are dressing 
their vines : send me these, dear uncle, and I will pray for you, — I 
will pray that not even in your dreams you may change the dearly 
loved landscapes of your own storied land for such dark and dreary 
forests as those amidst which we live." 

It was thus Henrich had more than once written to the Westphalian 
baron ; and, in return, he not only received the gifts he asked, but with 
them an earnest invitation to recross the ocean, and return to his pro- 
tection and the land of his birth. The thought of this return caused 
a joy so vehement in the breast of the enthusiastic boy, that he dared 
not trust himself to express it; but, placing the letter in his father's 
hand, he hastened to hide himself in the woods, and only reappeared 
when he thought he could listen to the paternal decision on the answer 
to be given to it, with a proper degree of external composure. 

That answer very nearly killed him, for it was a negative. Frederick 
Steinmark could not endure to think that a child of Mary's should be 
exposed to the possible insolence of the baroness; and, totally un- 
conscious of the blow he was giving, he returned the letter into the 
hands of Henrich as soon as he saw him, quietly saying, 

" No, Henrich, Europe is no longer the home of my family, nor 
can I permit that one should be severed from the rest. You would 
find no second mother, my boy, in the Baroness Steinmark." 

The subject was alluded to no more, excepting in those occasional 
moments of unreserved intercourse with his sister, which formed the 
only charm of his present existence. LoUe sympathised with him, 
and this sympathy probably prevented the blow from being mortal. 

And what had the eight last years done for Lotte ? They had turned 
a fair-haired bright-eyed little girl, into one of the loveliest nymphs that 
poetry ever fabled, or that nature ever formed. Her features had all 
the beautiful regularity of her mother's; but her loveliness was more 
derived from a look that recalled the sweet and meditative countenance 
of her father, than from all the brightness with which youth and beauty 
had adorned her. There was fascination in her eye, enchantment in 
her smile, and, when that look of gentle thoughlfulness stole upon her 
face which nature had made so remarkable in that of Steinmark, there 
was a charm, a holiness, an intellect in her beauty, that made her, 
even to the accustomed eyes of her family, appear almost too fair for 
earth. 

This being, so beyond measure lovely, so pure, so innocent, so 
good, so guileless. — this peerless treasure of the noble forester, un- 



48 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

knowingly attracted the attention of the young Jonathan, while strolling 
with her brother Henrich in one of the green glades left by the taste 
of her father amidst their cotton-grounds. 

The intercourse between the houses of Mount Etna and Reichland 
had nearly ceased since the second marriage of Whillaw. The bride 
found nothing to attract her in the manners of her German neighbours ; 
they owned no slaves, and wore no finery : while, on the other hand, 
every member of the Steinmark family thought the time better em- 
ployed in attending to the various duties allotted to each, than in 
listening to Mrs. Whillaw's expressions of pity at the sufferings they 
must endure in consequence of not " owning any niggers." 

The good Clio, however, still continued to walk over to the farm, 
whenever she could be spared from the store, just to see how they all 
went on; and the kindly welcome she received from Mary and her 
beautiful daughter whenever she appeared, made these stolen visits 
become one of her best consolations in the absence of her still idolized 
nephew, and the presence of her indolent and very insolent sister-in- 
law. 

If Jonathan Jefferson felt contempt for the Steinmark family before , 
he became an inmate of Paradise Plantation, it will be readily believed 
that this contempt was multiplied a thousand-fold afterwards. He was 
in truth become a very great man, not only in his own estimation, but 
in that of all the slaves, and a great many of the young ladies of 
Natchez ; and whenever it happened that he encountered either of the 
young Germans during his occasional visits to Mount Eina, he in- 
variably looked at them and their rustic dresses with the most minute 
attention, but without betraying the least consciousness that he had 
ever seen them before. 

It was about six months after his promotion to the honourable 
situation of Colonel Dart's confidential clerk, that he obtained, without 
being seen himself, an undisturbed stare at Lotte Steinmark. Young 
Jonathan was far from insensible to the influence of female beauty ; 
and though not particularly well qualified to appreciate what was most 
lovely even in the personal attractions of this charming girl, he never- 
theless speedily came to the conclusion that she was by far the most 
beautiful creature he had ever seen. He suffered the brother and 
sister to pass on, however, without emerging from his hiding-place, 
and then turned and walked slowly towards Mount Etna, pondering 
upon the possibility of presenting himself on the footing of a friendly 
visiter at a house which he had not entered for the last seven years, 
and before people to whom he had at every possible opportunity shown 
all the impertinence in his power. 

It is no trifling proof of the boldness and hardihood of the youth's 
character, that he decided, while these disqualifying recollections 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 49 

crowded upon him , not lo return to Paradise Plantation till he had 
renewed his acquaintance with the Steinmark lads, and opened the 
way lo an intercourse with their beautiful sister. He was willing, 
however, to remove some of the difficulties of the enterprise if possible ; 
and accordingly, on entering the enlarged and beautified mansion of 
his father, which was now never without the dignity of sundry half- 
naked negro children round the door, he despatched a sable messenger 
into the house with orders to bring Aunt, Cli to him. 

Joyfully as ever, she came at his bidding. 

" You wants me, my darling? " said she, wiping the hands that had 
been cutting cheese and bacon, on her apron. "You wants me, Jo- 
nathan dear? "What can I do for thee ? " 

"Why, that's more than I can say, Aunt Cli," returned the en- 
amoured youth ; "but something must be done, or I shall go crazy. 
Do you know Lotte Steinmark since she's been grow r n a woman ?" 

"Do I know her, Jonathan? Why isn't she the dearest little soul 
to me, next yourself, in the whole Union ? " 

"Indeed !■ — that's jam, then. Aunt Cli, I'm in love with her; what 
d'ye say to that ? I'm mad for love of her, and you must bring us 
together, if you die the minute after." 

" My — ! " exclaimed Clio, with a grin of the greatest delight. "If 
that bean't the best bit of news I've heard this many a day. Well, 
now, Jonathan darling, I'd rather go to your wedding with Lotte Stein- 
mark for your bride, than see you married to the heiress of fifty 
niggers." 

The young lover whistled Yankee Doodle. 

"I had indeed, Jonathan ; I'm right down sure she'd be clever to 
me." 

"Make yourself decent, Aunt Cli," said the young man, without 
answering her remark, " and walk over with me to the house; move 
quick, d'ye hear ! and say nothing to nobody." 

Though a multitude of affairs must be given up the while, Clio could 
not refuse to comply with a request so every way agreeable, and in a 
few minutes she was trotting at a brisk pace after Jonathan as he strode 
away towards Reichland. 

Ere they had gone many steps, however, the youth turned suddenly 
round to her, saying, "Where do the old folks keep? I've no call 
to see them, you know. If I bide in the orchard a spell, can't you 
go in, and bring the girl out to me, to take a walk for a bit, or some- 
thing of that sort?" 

Clio looked up wistfully in his face, and seemed loath to utter a 
word that should check him ; but yet, somehow, she did not in her 
heart think she could bring out Lotte to walk with Jonathan in the 
orchard. 



50 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

"Well, now, Jonathan dear, I expect they might think that funny^ 
like ; mightn't they ? She's a shy young thing, that pretty Lolte ; and 
mayhe now you're growed such a unaccountable noble-looking man 
of a boy, she mightn't think it first rate decent to run after you into 
the orchard, Jonathan." 

"That's all flum, Aunt Cli. People like them, that can't even keep 
a nigger to help 'em, had belter not be after giving themselves airs, I 
can tell 'em. However, I expect you know the whole kit of them 
best. Which way had we better get at her ?" 

kt Well, now, darling, I don't think we can do anything more likely 
than jest to walk in like, as I do by myself; and say ' How d'ye get 
along?' or summet of that sort, or else jest be after asking them to give 
or to loan you a thing or two, and then they'll be sure to be joyous to 
see us. 

" I ask them to give or to loan me anything ! Now do jest look at 
them and me, Aunt Cli, and then say what they've got to loan me. 
That's all fudge, and jest shows their poverty-pride : I should like to 
let them see my home at Paradise Plantation, with five hundred nig- 
gers that all look fit to drop if I do but turn my eye upon 'em. They 
loan me 1 " 

" Well, now, Jonathan, say no more about the loaning ; but jest 
walk straight in, and see how it will be." 

They had by this time nearly reached the richly-scented portico 
that ran round the house, and into which the general sitting-room 
opened. All farther discussion concerning the manner of their entrance 
was rendered unnecesary, for Lotte herself was standing before the 
open window, assisting Henrich to fasten the branches of a clematis, 
heavy with blossoms, upon the rustic treillis-work that surrounded 
the portico. 

The impudence of Jonathan very nearly failed him, and he felt a 
pretty considerably strong inclination to run away ; but the honest con- 
fidence of the simple-minded Clio came to his aid, and he manfully 
stood his ground beside her, as she walked up to the beautiful Lotte, 
who welcomed her most kindly. 

Neither the brother nor sister, however, had the slightest idea who 
the tall stripling might be, who, dressed in the height of New Orleans 
elegance, stood bowing with a strange mixture of bashfulness and 
audacity beside her. 

It was some minutes before it entered Clio's head that it was possible 
Lotte and Henrich should not know her nephew Jonathan; but as soon 
as the fact became manifest to her capacity, she performed the cere- 
mony of introduction by saying, 

"Well, now, I do believe you have downright forgotten Jonathan, 
both of you — and no wonder, seeing he's grow'd so dreadful hand- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 51 

some, and so tall and grandlike; but 'tis Jonathan, Lotte. Won't 
you shake hands with him ? " 

"Father and mother will be glad to see you, Clio," replied Lotte, 
colouring slightly, and making a movement towards the open window, 
"I think they are both here." 

This palpable evasion of the offered courtesy of hand-shaking, se- 
conded as it was by a brisk action of the youth's right hand the instant 
his aunt's agreeable proposal reached his ears, produced an effect both 
on his nerves and temper by no means favourable to the grace of his 
entry by the open window. He " had to do it," however ; and fol- 
lowing his aunt, and the beautiful object of his admiration and anger, 
he suddenly found himself in the presence also of Frederick Steinmark, 
Mary, Karl and Hermann. 

The day was Sunday, and the whole family had the air of enjoying 
the pleasant idleness, and unbroken intercourse with each other, which 
it permitted. Frederick indeed was reading; but the two sons were 
seated on each side of the mother, and both seemed enjoying the 
pleasure of a very lively conversation, in which she was taking part 
with as much animation as either of them. 

"Here is Clio, mother, come to see us," said Lotte as she en- 
tered. 

" And here is our Jonathan," said Clio, slopping short in her ad- 
vance towards Mary, till the young man had reached her side. "Arn't 
he growed, mistress? " 

"Very much grown, Clio," answered Mary kindly, and turning to 
Jonathan she asked him to sit down with a civility which quite sur- 
prised him. He gave her credit, however, for conquering feelings 
and resentments respecting him, which in truth it had never entered 
into her heart to conceive. She had heard there was a young Whit- 
law, and that young Whitlaw was gone to school, but, further than 
this, her memory retained no single idea concerning him. 

And even this was, probably, more than Frederick Steinmark 
knew, or remembered about him. He raised his eyes from his book, 
however, and with his own sweet smile nodded a welcome to the 
worthy Clio. 

" My nephew, Master Steinmark, sir!" said Clio, pushing Jona- 
than a little towards him. Frederick again raised his eyes, but it was 
evident that he was puzzled concerning the identity of the smart youth 
who stood before him, and with that guilty consciousness of inatten- 
tion which absent people often betray, he looked towards his wife and 
sons to assist him out of his embarrassment, or, if that were impos- 
sible, at least to relieve, him from doing the honours of his house to a 
guest of whose existence he could not recal the slightest recollection. 
Confident, however, from old experience, of receiving the aid his ex- 

4" 



52 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

pressive look demanded, he resumed his occupation, and, impossible as 
the thing appeared to Jonathan Jefferson, totally forgot that he was in 
the room. 

Not so Karl, Hermann, or Henrich. The occasional impertinences 
of their visiter to themselves were certainly not wholly forgotten ; but 
his presence recalled ideas infinitely more disagreeable, and more dis- 
advantageous to him, than any remembrances connected merely with 
themselves. 

Though the young Steinmarks associated as little as was well pos- 
sible with the inhabitants of Natchez, the necessary sale of their 
produce, and the purchase of articles required in return, made it im- 
possible that they should be altogether strangers there. Karl, too, in 
his vocation of miller, often found himself under the necessity of 
hearing more plantation gossip than was either interesting or agree- 
able; and both from his customers, and from the general report of 
Natchez, such a series of anecdotes had reached the brothers, as proved 
that, either justly or unjustly, the young hero of my tale had already 
acquired as general a character for dissolute libertinism as it would 
have required at least twice his age to collect round any one name 
amidst the more slowly developed vices of Europe. 

Nor was this all. The charge of cruelty to the unhappy negroes, 
into whose secret thoughts he was commissioned to penetrate, and 
whose slightest failings it was his hired service to betray, was spoken 
of with loathing and abhorrence even at Natchez. The hearts of the 
young Germans seemed to burn within them as Jonathan prepared to 
seat himself in the circle that pressed round their mother; and when, 
drawing his chair near to that of Lotte, he began smilingly and fami- 
liarly to address her, no consideration of civility, nor even the ac- 
customed deference to the presence of his parents, could control the 
feelings of the impetuous Karl, who, approaching his sister abruptly, 
said in a half-whisper, \* Leave the room, Lottchen !" and then, hav- 
ing stood between her and the object of his indignation till the door 
closed behind her, he replaced himself close beside his mother, turning 
his clear and almost fierce blue eyes upon the guest, with a look from 
which even the accomplished effrontery of Jonathan Jefferson turned 
abashed. 

This scene, which was becoming extremely unpleasant to every 
person present, excepting the absorbed Frederick Sleinmark and the 
unsuspicious Clio, could not last long. The object which had induced 
young Whitlaw to such an act of condescension as paying a voluntary 
visit to the " German boors," as he not very aptly termed the family 
of Steinmark, having so strangely withdrawn herself, all wish on his 
part to prolong the visit vanished ; and rising from his chair with htS 
hat still on his head, and his arms folded on his breast, he stood wait- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 53 

ling with no very amiable feelings, till his aunt should give some 
indication that if he bolted through the window, she would follow 
him. 

Clio, however, who perceived not that any thing was amiss, save 
indeed the absence of Lotte, whom she every moment expected to see 
re-enter, was in no hurry to depart. She hailed this opportunity of 
exhibiting the beauty and splendour of her nephew to her friendly 
neighbours ; and it was not till the swelling and mortified Jonathan had 
given her sundry admonitory pokes on the elbow, and finally uttered 
very audibly, "You are going to bide all day, I expect," that the kind- 
hearted soul conceived the possibility that it would be best to depart, 
even before one bit of courting had taken place with Lotte. 

This visit appeared over-long to more than one of the persons it 
brought together ; but it would have been well for all, had the effects 
of it lasted no longer. 



CHAPTER IX. 

It was not the habit of the Steinmark family to canvass the failings 
of any guests whom chance might bring to visit them in their remote 
retirement. The rareness of the occurrence made the face of a stranger 
welcome, and the genuine kindness of the family temper would ge- 
nerally have prevented any very severe animadversions even in cases 
where it was not so. But on the present occasion the extraordinary 
conduct of Karl demanded explanation, and it could only be given by 
imparting a portion at least of the information he had received respect- 
ing Whitlaw. 

Had Lotte been present, this must have been necessarily abridged ; 
but as it was, Karl felt it a duty sufficiently to enlighten his father and 
mother on the subject, to ensure their aid in preventing the repetition 
of a visit which for many reasons the young man felt convinced was 
especially intended for his sister. 

Frederick Steinmark's attention being awakened by the earnest 
manner of his son, he listened without any symptom of absence to all 
he had to say, and then replied : 

'* As far as our Lottchen is concerned, my dear Karl, I hold your 
precaution to be needless. Our young neighbour Jonathan would have 
no more power to sully the purity that you cherish so fondly, than a 
cloud passing before the sun can tarnish its brightness. You were 
wrong, dear son, to send her out of the room so abruptly. Lotte need 
not run to be safe from neighbour Jonathan. In short, Karl, in his 



34 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

capacity of beau and libertine, I fear him not. But looking at him in 
his capacity of slave-driver, I would not much have blamed your 
warmth, if you had fled yourself, and dragged us all in a string after 
you. Human nature can show nothing so abhorrent to my eyes and 
my heart as the men who traffic in the muscles and sinews of the poor 
negroes ; and this fellow, this young demon, by your account, does 
worse — he sells himself as a spy upon their untaught ignorance, that 
he may betray their idle words and make them bleed for each of them ! 
If fiends can take a human shape, it must be this. Let's talk no more 
of it ; it makes me loathe my home, and almost curse the land in which 
I have pitched my tent : let us talk of it no more." 

This command was literally obeyed. They did talk no more of Jo- 
nathan Jefferson Whitlaw, his occupations, or his character. 

Nor did Jonathan Jefferson, on his side, talk much of them. It was 
not in words that the feelings produced by Karl's treatment of him 
evaporated ; but deep, deep within his heart of hearts did he lay up 
the insult he had received. He knew, he saw, he heard, he felt, — ay, 
and he understood it all. Neither his egregious vanity, his prosperous 
ambition, the luxury in which he already lived, nor his towering hopes 
for the future, could so far blind, as to make him doubt for an instant 
that Karl, the German boor, scorned and reviled him, — that he had 
snatched his sister from his sight as too pure and holy for his eyes, and 
then had dared to look upon him as he would look upon a negro. 

There had been mutual scorn, dislike, and avoidance between them 
before, but now there was something approaching to hatred in the 
breast of both; and in that of Whitlaw, a deeply-sworn promise of 
revenge that he was not very likely to forget. 

But to no human being did he breathe a word of the offence he had 
received, or of the rich atonement which it was his purpose to re- 
quire when the fitting hour should come. He answered with apparent 
indifference to his aunt's observations on Lotte's running away; but 
either to avoid the repetition of them, or from some other reason, it 
was many months before he again found leisure to leave his duties at 
Paradise Plantation in order to visit Mount Etna. 

With Colonel Dart his importance appeared to increase daily. No 
person, indeed, could be better fitted for an employment than was 
Jonathan MIerson for that which the planter had entrusted to him. 
He had nothing to do with superintending the fulfilment of the ne- 
groes' tasks ; that was the duty of the different overseers, one of whom 
was attached to every separate gang. The large estate of Colonel 
Dart grew sugar, cotton, and rice ; and as the cultivation of each of 
these articles required a different kind of labour, and even a different 
species of physical power in those employed upon it, the slaves were 
as distinctly divided as if they had belonged to different proprietors; 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 55 

even the huts in which they dwelt were grouped in widely-distant 
parls of the property, so that Paradise Plantation could boast of three 
distinct negro villages. There were but two things which belonged 
to them all in common : these were, Colonel Dart, who was their 
general master, and Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, who was their ge- 
neral spy. 

The manner in which the business belonging to this latter office 
was performed might well propitiate the favour of Colonel Bart. The 
employment was congenial to the spirit of the employed, and was 
executed with intelligence, zeal, and unwearying perseverance. The 
task was moreover by no means an easy one. To watch the execution 
of a given portion of labour in a given time, and to spur the languid 
spirit or the failing strength of a suffering wretch to its performance, 
may require an active and unshrinking agent ; but his occupation is at 
least easily comprehended, and requires no faculties and no qualities 
which may not readily be found among the white population of a 
slave-holding country. Not so the employment entrusted to Jonathan 
Jefferson : to execute it with success, demanded great readiness, tact, 
presence of mind, and, above all things, most consummate cunning. 
It was his custom, from the hour the nature of his employment was 
first explained to him, to assume the appearance of being occupied by 
a variety of duties, all very naturally belonging to the situation of a 
confidential clerk. Thus, he would sometimes be seen riding through 
the grounds with an apparatus for measuring trees ; then it would be 
evident that it was making a map of the estate upon which he was 
intent. At one time the construction of every separate hut occupied 
so minute an attention, that each village took several weeks to be 
examined and set to rights; at another, the mode of cooking the negro 
food demanded his peculiar care, — and this also kept him long em- 
ployed upon the interior of the huts. Then again his duty took him 
into the fields, and the drains and ditches became the objects of his 
most persevering examination. On all these occasions he had from 
time to time need of the assistance of such negroes, whether men, 
women, or children, as were within his reach ; and in this manner he 
became personally acquainted with every slave on the estate before he 
had been employed upon it a year. For a long time these various 
pretences answered perfectly, — as far, at least, as leading the negroes 
to believe that his ostensible was his real business among them. But 
though for a while he succeeded in this, he failed totally and altogether 
in obtaining in any single quarter the slightest approach to confidence 
from the wary slaves ; nor could he by any means contrive to learn 
aught respecting them beyond what his eyes enabled him to perceive. 
His reports therefore were for a long time confined to the statement 
of a greater or less degree of cleanliness, industry, and the like; but 



5U LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

as to how much or how little each sable victim knew of what was 
passing beyond the limits of Paradise Plantation — whether the attempts 
making in various quarters to ameliorate their condition had been in 
any degree made known to them, was what he found it utterly be- 
yond the reach of all the arts he could make use of to discover. 

It was quite impossible to doubt either the intelligence or zeal of his 
confidential agent, and therefore Colonel Dart neither expressed nor 
indeed felt anything approaching to dissatisfaction at the abortive 
result of his endeavours to obtain information on these very important 
points; he only wished him to go on as he had begun, kindly en- 
couraging the young man to persevere notwithstanding his want of 
success, by observing that if so much cleverness and ingenuity failed 
of discovering the mischief he feared, he should soon have the comfort 
of believing that it did not exist at all. 

Jonathan himself, however, was not quite of this opinion. He had 
more than once fancied that he had heard a voice reading or praying 
in his stealthy approaches to some of the more distant huts ; but no 
sooner had the murmur reached him than it ceased, — clearly proving 
that, if indeed the sound itself were not imaginary, some person was 
on the watch to guard against surprise. On every occasion where this 
had occurred, he uniformly found, on entering the premises, that the 
persons occupying them were sedulously employed in their laborious 
household duties, and that not the slightest trace could be discovered 
of their having been engaged in any other. 

Young Whitlaw knew his patron too well to venture upon rousing 
his terrors by what might be so purely imaginary : he knew that he 
should probably be himself the greatest sufferer were he to make a 
statement which he could in no way substantiate, and he therefore 
continued to report the total absence of every appearance of religious 
mutiny (as the breaking in of a ray of light upon these unhappy 
beings is designated), determined at the same time to mark well the 
spots whence he had fancied the forbidden sounds to have proceeded, 
and to omit no possible means of ascertaining whether they were real 
or not. 

Shortly after he had made up his miud not to mention his suspicions 
to Colonel Dart tiil he had more assured grounds for them, it chanced 
that on two following evenings the same species of measured murmur 
struck his ear as he approached the remotest hut on a cotton plan- 
tation which was skirted on two sides by forest. As before, the 
sound ceased as he made another step in advance after hearing it ; but 
in both cases he found on entering the hut a young negress, who, 
though in the act of very busily washing linen, had, as he conceived, 
an air of hurry and confusion. 

She was a singularly handsome girl, who had more than once at- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 57 

traded his attention in the fields; and he now attempted to make a 
sort of toying acquaintance with her, by remarking the roundness of 
her arms, displayed as they were, nearly to the shoulder, for the con- 
venience of her occupation. 

It is singular that the only evidence his ready wit could discern to 
confirm his suspicions that this young negress had been guilty of pro- 
nouncing, or at least of listening to a prayer, was found in the peculiarly 
sweet and innocent expression of her countenance. Had an individual 
who felt and acknowledged the effect of religion come to exactly the 
same conclusion, there would certainly have been nothing extra- 
ordinary in it : but that Jonathan Jefferson Whillaw, who till eleven 
years of age had never entered a church or chapel of any kind, and 
who, excepting from occasional phrases from poor Clio, doubtful and 
mystical from inevitable ignorance, had scarcely heard the name of 
God till he was taught by his patron to watch for its being pronounced 
by a slave as an overt act of mutiny — that he should, in a countenance 
expressive of the purest candour and most ingenuous modesty, see 
something which forcibly suggested the idea that she had been taught 
the worship of a Christian, is remarkable, and shows pretty plainly, 
despite the severity used towards them, what the general effect left on 
the minds of the slave-holders must have been by those who hadbeen 
found guilty of listening to religious instruction. 

Young Whillaw looked in that innocent young face, and instantly 1 
decided upon the means he would take to learn what was passing in 
her heart. 

The fearfully demoralizing effects produced among the female 
slaves by the unlimited power of those placed in authority over them, 
together with the dreadful penalties attached to every species of dis- 
obedience, is well known to all who are in any degree acquainted 
with the fearful statistics of a large negro population. So deep and so 
general is the degradation of character consequent upon vices com- 
mitted, not from weakness, but from the most inevitable and hateful 
necessity, that the miserable victims cease at last to be conscious of 
shame, though awake to suffering; and it is only where the undaunted 
courage of some wandering preacher of the Gospel has taught them 
to believe that they are accountable to a Being superior to their owner, 
and that, beyond the w T retched world that holds them now, there is a 
happier region for all who deserve to enter it — except where doctrines 
such as these have been taught and learned, the grossest sensuality is 
deemed no sin. 

Not such, however, was the condition of Phebe, the innocent being 
who now stood within the grasp of young Whillaw. Her mother, 
herself, and two young sisters, had been purchased by Colonel Dart, 
about twelve months before, from a dealer who got them at the auc- 



5S LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

tion of a bankrupt's effects in a State which bordered on Ohio. There 
is much difficulty in guarding slaves effectually from the approach of 
instruction when they are situated near a free State. The free negroes 
themselves are often the means of enlightening to a certain degree 
their less happy brethren ; and there are few free States in which some 
individuals may not be found who will gladly seize every opportunity 
within their reach for the spiritual benefit of the miserable race whose 
condition they feel to be the greatest misfortune, as it is the greatest 
disgrace, of their country. 

Phebe and her family had been as fortunate in their former situa- 
tion in Kentucky as they were now in every way the reverse; and a 
heavy addition in the case of the poor girl to the misery produced by 
this change of masters, was an attachment to one of her own race as 
sincere and devoted as ever glowed in the heart of a woman. This 
lover, who was to have become her husband in the course of a few 
months, was bought by another. 

Till Phebe was carried away from Kentucky, she had no more idea 
of what the real evils of her condition were than those have who reason 
upon the institution of slavery from the bosom of freedom, and judging 
by some (perhaps) well-authenticated history of the happiness of a 
virtuous negro under the protection of a virtuous master, conceive 
that though, like all other human institutions, it may be liable to 
abuse, yet still that it is upon the whole an arrangement which admits 
of much mutual benefit to the parties. 

There are, I believe, many who honestly and conscientiously con- 
ceive this to be the case ; and that it mat have been so in individual 
instances cannot be doubted : but this ought not in the slightest degree 
to influence the general question. The principle — the fearful, terrible, 
unholy principle is still the same ; and wherever it is admitted and 
acted upon, there the social system is poisoned, and vice and misery 
are the inevitable results. 

But not only had Phebe and her family enjoyed the blessing of 
belonging to a kind and considerate master — they had enjoyed also 
the still higher advantage of being instructed, and well instructed, as 
responsible beings and as immortal Christians. 

A story is but ill constructed when the relater is obliged to retro- 
grade, yet it is sometimes very difficult to avoid it; and I believe it 
will be impossible to give the reader a necessary insight into the 
character of some of the personages the most important in my story, 
without referring to events which had passed before the time it com- 
prises had begun. 

In order, however, to keep the two periods as distinct as may be, 
my retrospect shall have a chapter to itself. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WIHTLAW. M 



CHAPTER X. 

At the distance of about ten miles from Lexington in the State of 
Kentucky, is, or rather was, a fine arable and pasture farm, the neat 
and careful cultivation of which might have reminded a European of 
the fertile fields of England. 

Henry Bligh, the proprietor, though he employed slaves both as 
indoor and outdoor servants, detested the system, and scrupled not, 
though at the risk of bringing upon himself the ill-will of many, to 
declare both publicly and privately, that the union of the States would 
never be securely cemented till they were all governed by equal laws, 
and till every human being who drew breath upon their soil might lift 
his voice to heaven and say, "I am an American, and therefore I am 
free." 

But the beautiful spot Henry Bligh inhabited was his own,— it 
had, too, been his father's ; it was his own birth-place, and that of his 
children ; and therefore, instead of seeking an abode where slavery 
was not, he contented himself with remaining and doing all the good 
in his power where it was. 

A motherless son and daughter constituted his whole family, and 
for many years they and their negroes continued to inhabit "Beech- 
tree Farm," without the relative situation of either party being a 
source of discomfort to the other. 

Among several peculiarities in the character of Henry Bligh, was 
an averseness to letting his children quit his own house and his own 
care. He was himself a man of literary habits and extensive reading ; 
and under his eye, and aided solely by his instructions, Edward and 
Lucy Bligh acquired more general information and more studious 
habits than are often found even in the more polished parts of the 
Union. 

It was a consciousness of this, and of the utter unfitness of both son 
and daughter either to increase the property he should leave them, or 
to enjoy life with less of easy indifference to daily expense than he 
had accustomed them to, which made him listen to the proposals of 
an acquaintance at Lexington for rapidly increasing his fortune by 
placing a small sum of ready money which he possessed in a newly- 
established banking concern. 

The bank failed, and Henry Bligh was completely ruined. His 
ignorance of business had led him to conceive that the six thousand 
dollars he had placed in the bank was all he risked ; but his name 



<)0 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

was in the firm, and house, lands, stock, and furniture, were all 
seized and sold by auction, towards clearing the large demands of the 
creditors. 

A misfortune such as this might weigh down the spirits of any man ; 
but poor Bligh was singularly ill calculated to support it. He, and 
his two pure-minded, intellectual, but very helpless children, were 
left utterly and literally destitute ; and it was only by the sale of some 
articles of wearing apparel which they were permitted to retain, that 
their existence was for some time supported. 

The only expedient which suggested itself to Edward by which he 
might hope to maintain his father and sister, was the opening a day- 
school in the populous village near which they had lived. By the aid 
of a neighbour who lent him a ruinous barn for the purpose, he so 
far succeeded as to be spared the agony of seeing his broken-hearted 
father and delicate sister actually want bread. But the exertion and 
fatigue which achieved this were overwhelming, and the objects of 
his care saw the young cheek fade and the bright eye grow dim 
under the irksome and unwonted toil. Poor Lucy saw it, and deter- 
mined to divide the labour. Without consulting either father or 
brother, whose principal occupation and delight had been to guard 
her from every care and every sorrow, she stole from the corner of 
their shed in which her father and herself sat apart during the hours 
of Edward's labour, and passing, for the first time since she left her 
home, through the long village street, she called at every house, 
begging permission to instruct their girls at a price so low that avarice 
was tempted, — and in a voice so sweet, and yet so sad, that few ears 
could listen to it unmoved. 

The consequence was, that on the following Monday Lucy's side of 
the barn held nearly as many pupils as Edward's. 

There was much to rejoice at in this, — and perhaps they did rejoice. 
But the arrangement necessarily left the unhappy father more alone ; 
and whether it were that his spirits failed the more completely from 
this circumstance, or that his cup was full and he could bear no more, 
certain it is that he declined daily and hourly from that time, and in 
less than in three months was attended to the grave by his unhappy 
orphans. 

It had long been Edward's intention to enter the church ; but, 
though his father never opposed it, the putting his wish in execution 
had been delayed from the reluctance which Mr. Bligh felt to part 
with him for the period necessary for the probationary studies which 
must precede the taking orders 

This most unfortunate delay left him totally without profession or 
resource of any kind ; and with a sister who was dearer to him than 
his own life, and whose habits were those rather of refinement than 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAYV. C! 

of usefulness, he had now lo seek bread and shelter for both, with an 
aching heart and weakened health. 

It is difficult to imagine consultations for the future between two 
young people, in which there was less of hope and more of de- 
spondency than those of Edward and Lucy Bligh. The world was 
before them, but it was a blank. They each felt conscious of supe- 
rior powers, but more deeply conscious still of their utter incapacity 
to turn them to account. Lucy, though thoroughly well-read, and 
with information equally profound and extensive, had nevertheless no 
accomplishments by the teaching which she might hope to gain the 
means of existence. Who would pay her for her love of Pascal, her 
familiarity with Dante, or her enthusiasm for Shakspeare? 

"Would I could work at any useful trade, dear Edward !" she said, 
after they had canvassed the improbability that any one should think 
her qualified for the situation of Governess. "I am still young 
enough to turn my thoughts away from all that has hitherto engrossed 
them, and to take interest in a new manner of existence ; but the 
difficulty is to find out some handicraft of which I am capable." 

"Yes, Lucy, you have proved that you can submit to toil," replied 
her brother. "There are few occupations I should conceive so 
wearing to the heart and soul as teaching children whose intellects 
have never been awakened beyond the yearning to have their animal 
wants supplied ; — Lucy, it is dreadful!" 

"Let us not think of it; it is over for the week at least," replied 
his sister. "To-morrow is Sunday, Edward, and we will try to 
fancy that we are not — as we are. But why is it, Edward, that the 
task of instruction is now so terrible, when I used to take such ex- 
treme pleasure in teaching poor black Phebe? Is it possible that I 
am so wicked as to find delight in what was merely a matter of will 
or whim, and that the same thing shall become hateful to me as soon 
as it is my duty to do it?" 

" Do not treat yourself with so great injustice, my poor girl. The 
teaching Phebe was a task that might have given pleasure to the most 
refined and intellectual person living. Her docility, her gentleness, 
her intelligence, her piety, and her warm gratitude, made the office 
of her instructor perfectly delightful. You surely cannot compare 
that to the unspeakable fatigue of the occupation in which we are now 
engaged?" 

"No, certainly, Edward, it resembles it in noway, and I am 
glad that you deem it is no wickedness of mine which leads me to 
think so. Poor Phebe ! — I wish I knew where and how she was. 
The seeing the poor faithful creatures we had endeavoured to make 
so happy round us scattered about over the Union just as chance might 
decide, was not one of the least painful circumstances attending our 



62 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

sad downfall. And Caesar, too, — the gay, kind-hearted, generous 
Caesar ! — I would do much to know their destiny. Should they 
have been parted, their misery must be great indeed, for never did 
two young creatures love more tenderly." 

She ceased ; but it was some minutes before Edward answered her. 
At length he said, " Lucy, the utter destitution of my position has 
sometimes suggested thoughts that, wild as I know they must appear 
to you, would yet have in them a world of consolation, were it not 
But I will not leave you, Lucy — " 

" Leave me !" exclaimed the poor girl, turning first pale, and then 
red, — ''leave me, brother 1 — Oh! no, you will not do that — it is im- 
possible!" 

" It is impossible, dearest, — I do not think of it; but were you 
placed where I could believe that you were safe and happy, I have 
quite decided what my destiny should be." 

"Will you not tell me, Edward?" 

" Yes, my love, I will, for the subject is much in my thoughts, 
and it will be a pleasure to me to talk to you of it. But fancy not 
that I think of putting it in execution : it is but one of those dreams 
with which the unhappy, I believe, often solace existence." 

"Let me then dream with you," said his sister. "If it be a 
solace, let me share it." 

" You shall ; but take care that you do not laugh at me. You know, 
Lucy, what were my father's opinions respecting slavery. You know, 
I think, that he had amongst his books nearly every publication of 
every land which treated of the subject; but perhaps you do not 
know the deep, the engrossing interest which this subject excited in 

me?" 

" Your reading was so general," replied his sister, "that I 'cer- 
tainly did not remark that these publications occupied you particu- 
larly." 

"They occupied me loo intensely to permit my talking of them. 
I feared to be deemed an enthusiast on a subject to which I would 
willingly have brought profitable and efficient wisdom at the cost of 
half my life. The point on which my meditations turned by day and 
by night, was less the personal bondage of the negro race, than the 
brute ignorance in which their masters permit them to remain ; an 
ignorance which in a thousand — ay, in a hundred thousand instances 
— prevents the wretched victims of our frightful laws from knowing 
good from evil. Had our condition remained for a few weeks longer 
unchanged, Lucy, I was determined to have petitioned my fatherfor 
immediate leave to obtain ordination, and then to have passed my life 
in journeying through the regions where this plague-spot of our coun- 
try is the darkest, in the hope that under the sanction of my sacred 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 63 

calling I might awaken some of these unfortunates to a consciousness of 
their immortality. This hope is passed away, like every other that 
embellished that period of our existence ; yet still my spirit seems to 
bear me perpetually to those scenes of misery with the description of 
which I have become familiar, and hopeless and helpless as I am my- 
self, I still cannot help believing that, were I at liberty to wander 
forth among them, I might lead many an ignorant but innocent spirit 
to hold commune with Him who is not less the God of [the black man 
than of the white. This, Lucy, is what I would attempt, were it not 
my first and dearest duty to watch over you." 

" And were it not that you lack all means for such an enterprise, 
Edward, and would do so no less if I lay in the grave-yard beside our 
father, — were it not for this, I might be still more wretched than I am, 
from knowing that I am a restraint upon you. Had we wherewithal 
to sustain life as we journeyed, I would not be your hindrance, bro- 
ther, but your aid. I would go with you, and I can even think that 
I too might be useful. Could I but meet such pupils as my poor 
Phebe, I should never be weary of teaching." 

All this seemed at the time but idle talk ; but accident ripened the 
thoughts that were then dropped, and much that deeply affected the 
destinies of the brother and sister resulted from it. 

They both pursued their labours in the village school they had in- 
stituted, successfully, though wearily, and even found that they were 
enabled to gain more than they required for their daily support. Their 
uncomplaining industry, and the conscientious manner in which they 
performed the duties they had undertaken, brought them all the pa- 
tronage and all the assistance which the poor neighbourhood could 
give; and it is probable that they might long have continued in the 
same occupation, had not the arrival of the following letter awakened 
feelings which led them to a different and much less tranquil mode of 
life. 

The letter was from black Phebe, the affectionately remembered 
slave and pupil of Lucy Bligh. 

5 'Honoured Lady and Mistress, 

11 Grief and sorrow are at my heart. I wish our God had not made 
it his command that we must not die and go to him, when sufferings come too 
much to bear. I do not think that you, or our kind master, or our Master 
Edward, know anything at all about what being a slave means in this fearful 
country near Natchez. It means labour till strength fails — stripes till the blood 
runs dow 7 n — wickedness till God must turn away his face — and shame, and suf- 
fering, and woe, till life seems worse, much w r orse than death. 

" Dear and honoured mistress, I write to ask if you can tell me where my 
promised husband is. Oh, my poor Ca?sar ! — if he could see me, and all that is 
about me ! Perhaps Caesar is dead. I sometimes think he must be ; and if I 



64 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

knew it, I think, dear honoured mistress, I should die too, without offending 
God." 



The letter then proceeded at greater length than it is necessary for 
the reader to follow, to describe the state of Colonel Dart's slaves — 
their ignorance, their vice, and their sufferings — and concluded by 
saying, that if the unhappy writer heard nothing as to the fate of her 
lover, or concerning the protectors, the friends, and instructors of her 
youth, she thought these would prove to be her dying words, for that 
she felt her heart sinking within her, and trusted that God would take 
her to his mercy before she had suffered much more. 

How poor Phebe had contrived to convey her melancholy letter to 
the post remained a mystery ; but its effect upon her former mistress 
proved that she had not overrated the interest felt for her by those 
from whom she had been so cruelly torn. Lucy wept over it bitter- 
ly, and when she put it into her brother's hand, she said with a feel- 
ing of enthusiasm almost equal to his own, " Edward ! if we had one 
hundred dollars in the world, I should say that, useless and uncon- 
nected with the world as we are, we should do well to set forth toge- 
ther on a pilgrimage to the wretched land where our poor Phebe and 
her fellow-sufferers languish. We should have no power to redeem 
them from their worse than Egyptian bondage; but might we not be 
enabled to throw such a light upon the everlasting future as might 
teach them to feel with less bitterness the miseries of the dreadful but 
passing hours of the present ?" 

Lucy's soft eyes were lighted up with an energy and earnestness that 
her brother had never seen in them before. He took Phebe's letter, 
and having perused it attentively, returned it in silence, and left the 
little room, which by degrees he had converted into a decent shelter. 
In a few minutes he returned, bearing in his hand a small box, which 
he opened, and poured the contents into his sister's lap. 

" Here are forty dollars, Lucy," he said, " obtained partly by the 
sale of linen which was no longer fit for my use, and partly by the little 
weekly savings we have made since my poor father's death. This 
sum is already sufficient to convey us to Natchez, and to support us in 
the manner in which we now live for several months. I do believe, 
my sister, that we are called to this work. The singular education we 
have received, and the still more singular isolation of our condition, 
seems to point us out as belonging to those, who having no worldly- 
ties to withhold them should go forth amongst the wretched and the ig- 
norant to pour the balm of God's word into their hearts. While I 
thought you, Lucy, unequal to the task, I put the hope of performing 
it far from me, for I deemed that my first duty was to cherish and 
protect my orphan sister : but now — now that I read in»your eyes (he 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 05 

same devolion to this cause which I feel at my own heart, shall I from 
any cowardly misgivings of your strength or my own, attempt to check, 
your holy zeal ? Forbid it, Heaven ! — I am ready, Lucy. Let us 
finish the labours of the week, dispose of the trifles we have collect- 
ed round us, and armed with the courage which such a cause should 
give, let us set forth for the plantations of Louisiana. Perhaps we may 
again find bread, by collecting a school among the white settlers in the 
forest behind Natchez. But this is a secondary consideration. — Lucy, 
have you courage to do this V 

It would be difficult to analyze the feelings of Lucy Bligh as she 
listened to this proposal. What she had uttered in the first warmth of 
her feelings on reading the melancholy statement of the poor slave, 
though as perfect in truth as her own spotless heart, was nevertheless 
spoken with such a conviction that the scheme she mentioned was im- 
practicable, that her mind had in fact never contemplated the dangers 
and difficulties it must involve. But now that it was at once brought 
before her as a thing to be done, or not done, according to her judg- 
ment and her will, she trembled. 

"If indeed, my brother, you deem this great enterprise possible, 
and our duty, I will follow you in it, body and soul, so long as nature 
shall give me strength to do so." 

It was thus that, after a few moments' delay, Lucy replied to the 
unexpected proposal ; and if the fervour of her consent was tempered 
by a shade of timidity, her brother saw it not. The most earnest wish 
of his heart was about to be fulfilled ; enthusiasm had taken the place 
of all ordinary considerations of prudence, and even the dangers and 
difficulties which his sister must inevitably encounter appeared to his 
exalted feelings only a ray the more in the crown of glory they were 
about to win. * 

****** * 

Their walk to the banks of the Ohio, their embarkation on board a 
steam-boat, the various sufferings of the delicate Lucy during her 
deck-passage of many days, and the changeful feelings of her brother, 
wavering between the tenderness of a man and the sternness of a mar- 
tyr, must be passed by without any detailed description ; and the 
reader must rest contented with knowing that at the distance of one 
month from the period of the conversation I have last recorded, the 
brother and sister had established themselves in a small room, with a 
loft over it, at an obscure clearing in the forest to the north-east of 
Natchez, which made part of the premises of a poor back-woodsman, 
who thankfully restricted his family to the use of half their dwelling, 
for the consideration of twenty-five cents per week, as the rent of the 
remainder. 

The curiosity of their host and his wife was satisfied or baffled by 



66 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

being informed that they were an orphan brother and sister desirous 
of gaining a living by instructing the children of the neighbouring 
settlers. As this statement was strictly true, it was threatened with 
no danger from any discovery ; and as their scholars were not at first 
very numerous, the long rambles which Edward took in the forest 
and neighbourhood attracted neither attention nor inquiry. 

In a country so thickly peopled with slaves as Natchez and its 
vicinity, it was but too easy for the enthusiastic and persevering Ed- 
ward Bligh to discover a multitude of human beings totally deficient 
in that knowledge which it was the sole passion of his young heart to 
spread abroad. And never did a hope more holy, an ambition more 
sublime, engross the soul of man. Remote as is good from evil, was 
the principle which sent him forth, thus self-elected and self-devoted, 
to raise the poor crushed victims of an infernal tyranny from the 
state of grovelling ignorance to which they were chained by their well- 
calcutaling masters, from that which swells with most unrighteous 
vanity the hearts of many among ourselves, inclined to separate from 
the established faith in which they were educated, and to hold them- 
selves apart, as chosen saints and apostles of another. 

As well might a philanthropist labouring in a desert where no abler 
hand could be found to minister relief to the sick and suffering — as 
well might such a one be compared to the audacious quack who, 
thrusting instructed science aside, claims reverence for his own daring 
ignorance, as Edward Bligh to the self-seeking fanatics who canker our 
establishment. 

It is true, indeed, that the praise justly due to his excellent inten- 
tions cannot be as fully accorded to his prudence. His judgment 
was unquestionably shaken by the fervour of his zeal, or he would not 
have urged his young sister to an enterprise so pregnant with difficulty 
and danger. But this chapter is a retrospect, and therefore must not 
forestall the future. 

About two months before the domiciliary visit of young Whitlaw to 
the hut of Phebe's mother, Lucy and Edward Bligh had found means 
to see and converse with their former dependants. But terror at the 
idea of being discovered to hold intercourse with strangers almost con- 
quered the delight with which the affectionate Phebe greeted her be- 
loved mistress, and nearly all their subsequent meetings had been held 
at dead of night in the depth of the forest which divided the boundary 
of Colonel Dart's plantation from the dwelling which sheltered the 
Biighs. 

Phebe's hut w r as very favourably situated for her stealing to these 
midnight meetings. A clear spring which rose near the verge of the 
woods had led to the erection of a washing-house beside it : in this 
house Phebe and her mother had been recently placed as laundresses 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 67 

to apart of the establishment : and as no other dwelling was within 
sight, the grateful and affectionate girl ran little risk of discovery 
when creeping from her pallet into the forest, and returning to it again 
before sun-rise. 

Before leaving Kentucky, Edward Bligh ascertained from the 
auctioneer who sold his father's slaves, that Csesar had become the pro- 
perty of a manufacturer at New Orleans ; intelligence which caused as 
great joy to Phebe, as the knowledge that the loved one was living 
next door might have done to a less despairing mistress. Having satis- 
fied the poor girl on (bis point, Edward proceeded to explain to her 
the hopes which had brought him to the scene her letter described as 
so full of misery and sin. The dialogue which followed this com- 
munication may throw some light on the circumstances which took 
place afterwards. 

" I hope, Phebe," said Edward, " that you will be able to put me 
in the way of awakening your miserable fellow-labourers to a sense of 
their own importance in the sight of Heaven, and to the blessed hopes 
of happiness in a life to come." 

"Ah! dear master Edward!" replied Phebe, "the poor black 
souls think only but of their bodies in this world, and their stripes and 
their labour and their bad food when the overseer is angry. They will 
not believe that there is a good God in heaven watching to make it all 
up to them by-and-by." 

" Have you never told them this, Phebe?" 

"When first I came, Master Edward, and heard them speak, and 
saw them do, like beings having no souls for the life that is to be after 
this is over, and when I thought of Caesar, and that I should never 
never see him more till I met him in heaven, I prayed on my knees 
every night, when all the world was sleeping, except Phebe — I prayed 
to God to let me die—" 

"Phebe ! " interrupted Edward somewhat sternly. 
"Master Edward ! — don't think me grown bad! — I know it was a 
sin, I found it out myself though I had no church to go to, no good 
master to tell me what was right, no Bible to read — I found it out in 
my own heart, and then I prayed to God to forgive me, and then I 
strove to do good to those lower, and more wretched than myself, but 
they could not understand one word I said." 

"Then it is the more necessary, Phebe, that we should endeavour 
to instruct them. Hid they receive kindly what you said to them ?" 

" Alas 1 no, Master Edward, I would not have your ears hear, and 
still less my dear Miss Lucy's, the terrible words and deeds spoken and 
done here. The negroes of this country are very miserable — but they 
are very wicked, too." 

" Perhaps it is not their fault, Phebe," said Lucy, " perhaps they 



68 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

might be easily reclaimed, if one could be found, who, without being a 
slave himself, could feel for slaves. Do you not think that they would 
listen to Edward?" 

"And where could they listen to him, Miss Lucy?— In the grounds? 
— Why, if they did but stop to raise their eyes to him, the lash would 
be on their backs. And think you Master Edward himself would be 
safe? No ! no ! you must not peril your precious life, Master Edward, 
for such as we are. Do you not know that the planters have sworn 
together to take vengeance on any one who should only be caught 
teaching a negro to read? And how much more dreadful vengeance 
would they take on any who should dare to say that the soul of a black 
man is like the soul of a white one ! — You must not think of it; Master 
Edward, — your life would pay for it." 

"And my life shall pay for it, Phebe, if such be the will of Heaven," 
replied the enthusiast. " Do not throw difficulties in my way, my 
good girl, by endeavouring to terrify my sister. I am here to preach 
the doctrine of hope and salvation to the despairing slaves, and neither 
hardships, nor sufferings, nor danger, nor threatenings — no, nor death 
itself, shall appal me. So help me Heaven as I keep my word !" 

The solemn silence of the night as Edward Bligh uttered these words 
in the deep still voice of profound emotion added to their effect. The 
moon shed, throught the light boughs of the locust treess under which 
they walked, a soft pa!e light on the uplifted face of the young man, 
which seemed to give an unearthly expression to his countenance. He 
raised his hat reverently from his brow as he spoke, the cool night- 
breeze blew the dark curls from his forehead, and as he raised his eyes 
to heaven, he might have furnished the finest model for a representation 
of youthful piety that ever blessed a painter. 

Phebe gazed at him with reverence, and suddenly dropping on her 
knees, exclaimed, ' ' Then may Heaven help your work, Master Edward ! 
And Phebe would die too, rather than hinder it : but do not let them 
see you, Master Edward — the master is " 

"It matters not, Phebe, what he is," resumed Edward. "But 
kneel not to me, poor child ; kneel before the throne of God, and pray 
for power to help me to perform the task he sets me. You may do it, 
Phebe, — you may do much to help me." 

" Tell me what it is, and I will do it," replied the girl, " though 
they should lash me into rags for it. What is it I can do, Master 
Edward?" 

Edward Bligh did not reply immediately. Perhaps some feeling of 
doubt and dread as to the peril to which the poor slave would be ex- 
posed if discovered to be his agent kept him awhile in suspense ; but the 
impulse that urged him onward in defiance of every danger which 
might befall himself and his still dearer sister, soon drove before it 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 69 

whatever reluctance this thought might have created : he paused in his 
walk, and the two young girls who were on each side of him pausing 
likewise, looked up into his young and beautiful countenance as if they 
were to read their destiny there. 

" It is no light and easy task, Phebe, to which Heaven has called us. 
The circumstances of our lives, though we are still veryyoung, have 
been so strangely ordered that we cannot but see the hand of God in it. 
An immediate Providence is surely visible in the arrangement of that 
series of events which, contrary to all human calculation, has brought 
us thus together on the spot where, perhaps, beyond all others upon 
earth, we may hope to serve the cause for which the Son of the Most 
High gave his own sacred blood. In this belief we shall find hope, 
strength, long-suffering, and courage, unto the end. Have you this 
belief, Phebe?" 

" I do believe that you, Master Edward, may have been chosen by 
the wise God to teach and to save poor negroes. But I !— -Oh, no ! 
that would be to think myself equal to you and to Miss Lucy. But I 
do not want such a thought as that to make me faithful. Tell me 
what to do ; and if I do it not, then scorn the poor black girl, even as 
she is scorned by all other white men. What shall I do, Master Ed- 
ward?" 

"First, Phebe," replied Edward, "endeavour to ascertain with 
certainty who among the numerous slaves who are your fellow-la- 
bourers on the estate to which you belong, are the most likely to listen 
to the word of God. Let me and my sister know their names, and in 
what quarter they are employed. It will then be necessary, before we 
begin our work, to arrange the time and place where, with the least 
danger to themselves, they may be able to meet and listen to us. When 
this is done, we must take measures to receive them. You thus per- 
ceive, my good Phebe, that your services will be most essential to us." 

Phebe's only reply was again dropping on her knees, and kissing 
the ground that his advancing step would press — but she spoke not a 
single word. Then, rising to her feet, she resumed her place beside 
him ; but as she did so, a deep sigh smote on the ear of Lucy. 

" You sigh, Phebe !" said her former mistress kindly. ' ' Be candid 

with us — conceal nothing ! Tell me why is it that you sigh thus 

heavily ? Something is on your mind, Phebe. You fear to do 

what Edward asks of you." 

" Miss Lucy !" said the girl, suddenly standing still, "thanks to your 

blessed teaching, I know much for a poor black girl, I know very 

much, and may the God of all knowledge reward you for it. But 
still my mind is dark compared to yours; and if I sigh, it is because 
I cannot see — not so clearly as I ought to see — beyond the stripes, 
and chains, and tortures that must come upon us here. Tell me, dear 



70 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

mistress, dear master — tell me, when we are dead, when we have 
died for this business we have got to do, will not both of you be great 
and powerful and high and happy — very, very happy in heaven?" 

" Die for it, Phebe !" exclaimed Lucy trembling, — " Die for it? — 
Surely the reading the Bible to such of the poor slaves as wish to hear 
it can endanger the life of no one." 

" You are terrified, my poor girl," said Edward, gently; '* do not 
be afraid to tell me so. You fear the overseer's lash — is it not so? 
I will not involve you in the business, Phebe ; I will myself make ac- 
quaintance from time to time among the slaves when they are least 
watched — and I will only seek the aid of Heaven." 
The black girl burst into tears. 

" Oh ! could I speak as you speak, Master Edward," she said, — 
" could I know how to show what is in my heart, — you would not 
think that it was the overseer's lash, nor any other thing that could 
harm me, that made me fear to help you in this. But I know one 
thing, one dreadful thing belter than you do — I know that to teach a 
slave will bring down vengeance on Miss Lucy and on you ; I know 
it, and my blood runs cold as I look at you both, with the soft, quiet 
moonlight that seems full of God's own goodness shining on you — 
when, perhaps, the next time it comes round again it may light the 
wicked ones to look for you — and to find you." 

Phebe ceased to speak, for tears choked her utterance, and neither 
of her companions answered her. Edward was weighing solemnly, 
and, as he hoped, wisely, the purport of her words ; and Lucy re- 
mained in anxious expectation that he would answer them. But it was 
Phebe who again spoke. She dashed the tears from her eyes, and said 
with firmness, 

" Now, dear master — now, dear mistress, I have told you all, and 
never more will Phebe speak a backward word concerning the good 
work. If you die for it, happy and glorified will I be to die with you. 
I know two slaves, Master Edward, that I think will listen to me at 
once ; shall I bring them just to those dark trees to-morrow night?" 
she said, pointing to a group of ilex. 

The young slave now spoke without faltering; she knew the danger 
they were about to incur infinitely better than her hearers did. Of 
this she was well aware, and the idea that it was her duty to tell them 
so, and perhaps thereby to check their hopes, had made this conver- 
sation terrible to her. But never did martyr give himself body and 
soul to the work which he knew must bring him to the stake, more 
devotedly than did black Phebe henceforward bind herself to this. Her 
last word of warning was uttered. 

If Edward Bligh had listened with doubt and dread to her predic- 
tions for one short moment, it w r as infinitely more for the sake of his 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 71 

beloved sister, and also of the poor slave herself, than from any con- 
sideration touching his personal safety. When, therefore, Phebe's 
last words seemed to urge him on, he caught them as if they were a 
fresh awakening sent from heaven, and at once, and, as he hoped, 
forever, shaking off the creeping sense of danger which had unnerved 
him for an inslant, he eagerly accepted the appointment, and then 
dismissed her to her mother's hut with an ardent and affectionate bless- 
ing ; after which he carefully led back his trembling sister through a 
narrow forest-path to her humble and anxious pillow. Their walk was 
wholly silent, each being absorbed by thoughts which worked too 
strongly within them to permit of conversation. 

Edward's soul was wrapt into the highest state of enthusiasm. He 
now felt himself launched on the career which he had so long and 
ardently desired to pursue ; while Lucy pondered heavily the words of 
fearful foreboding to which the too well-instructed slave had given 
utterance. 

After this statement, the reader will be at no loss to divine whose 
voice it was which had from time to time reached the ear of young 
Whitlaw in sounds which seemed to indicate reading and prayer ; nor 
will it be difficult for him to conceive with what feelings the wretched 
Phebe listened to the licentious proposals of the man whose eye she 
knew was open and watchful to discover what she would willingly have 
given her life to hide. 

With ingenuity inspired by affection, she had hitherto contrived 
effectually to conceal the visits of Edward at two or three of the 
remotest huts. His converts already amounted to fifty ; and the more 
numerous they became, the more difficult was it to guard against 
surprise. But so ably had this young girl arranged the manner of 
their meetings, which were never general except at dead of night and 
in the thickest covert of the forest, that not all the watchfulness of 
Whitlaw had hitherto enabled him to make any discovery. The voice 
he had heard was indeed that of Edward Bligh ; but his auditors at 
these limes never exceeded three or four, whom he deemed to be in want 
of especial instruction; and on such occasions Phebe not only kept 
guard, but had previously taken measures so effectually to ensure the 
timely retreat of those assembled, as to have rendered the repeated in- 
terruptions of Whitlaw perfectly harmless. 

Her courage had therefore gradually increased ; and the triumph 
of her success, made up as it was of various feelings, amounted to a 
glowing sense of happiness which lent lustre to her eyes and elasticity 
to every movement. 

The unhappy girl probably owed the first notice and admiration of the 
young libertine to this ; and when persuaded that if instruction of any 
kind were going on, Phebe must be engaged in it, he conceived the 



7J LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

idea of gaining her affections, and thus discovering her secret, a most 
hateful union of passion and treachery took possession of his soul. 

Fierce and frightful were the disappointment and the rage produced 
by the wretched girl's silent but most eloquent abhorrence as she 
shrunk from his hateful caresses ; and horrible were the blasphemies 
which burst from his young lips as he marked the appeal of her raised 
eyes to heaven. Scorn and revilings succeeded to his words of blandish- 
ment, and he at length left the hut, pronouncing in a tone that made 
her heart sink within her — " Slave and rebel ! — Beware! — You shall 
be taught to know your duty !" 



CHAPTER XL 

On all former occasions, when Whitlaw had entered a cabin whence 
Phebe's timely caution had previously dismissed either Edward or 
Lucy Bligh and those met to listen to them, his departure from it had 
been a signal for thanksgiving and joy ; but now the poor girl sank on 
the floor of her dwelling in an agony of terror and despair. 

" Poor wench !" said her mother, turning her head from the tub at 
which she was washing. Two large tears fell over her dark cheeks, 
but she spoke not another word, or gave further token of sympathy or 
sorrow. A slave may feel her heart swell with tenderness or with 
grief; but beyond the mere animal functions of giving life and nourish- 
ment, she cannot show that she is a mother. 

It had been arranged, and always carried into effect, that the time 
occupied by the intruder in looking round the hut and questioning the 
inhabitants should be employed by those who retreated from it in 
making their escape into the woods, which were close upon every 
habitation used for the prayer-meetings ; and the consciousness that it 
would be no easy task to find them, was a never-failing source of 
triumph and delight to the negroes who remained to meet the puzzled 
eye of the inquisitor. But now Phebe would have suffered the lash 
patiently, could she by doing so have ensured a few minutes con- 
versation with Lucy Bligh. From her she was sure of a species of 
sympathy which it was impossible she should find from any one else, 
and she might give her counsel — most important counsel. 

Black Phebe, from the first instant that Whitlaw gave her to under- 
stand his licentious purpose, was as steadfastly and desperately de- 
termined to resist it, as Rebecca to save herself from the Templar. 
There appeared but two ways to effect this — death and flight. The 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. Ti 

former, her simple but most devoted piety forbad ; and for the second, 
the difficulties which must accompany it made her brain feel dizzy as 
she thought upon them. Her dear mistress and her master, as she 
ever called Edward and Lucy Bligh, might suggest something to help 
her in this her utmost need. But where were they? — Buried in 
thickets whose impervious shelter had hitherto been her best con- 
solation. She rose from her abject position, and leaving the cabin by 
the door which opened upon the forest, she walked mournfully onward, 
with a sort of vague hope that she might chance to fall upon the retreat 
of her friends; but ere she had proceeded a hundred yards, her eye 
was caught by the movement of several of the large and heavy leaves 
of a tuft of palmetoes which grew beside the path. No breeze was 
stirring, and from the situation of the plant, no very light breeze could 
have produced such a movement as she had seen. Her first idea was 
that a large snake might be concealed beneath it; but a second glance 
showed a portion of the white dress in which the Louisianian gentlemen 
indulge during the summer months. 

Whitlaw was so dressed, and Phebe instantly divined that it was he 
who lay couching there, probably in the hope of seeing her take the 
way by which those whose voices he insisted upon it he had heard, had 
made their escape. 

This thought at once restored her presence of mind, for it recalled to 
her recollection the danger of her friends. Without changing her 
manner or her pace, she proceeded a little farther in the same direction, 
and then stopping at the foot of a locust-tree fully exposed to the view 
of whatever eyes might look forth from the shelter of the palmetto, she 
sat down, as if, naturally enough, she wished to meditate in solitude 
on the scene which had just occurred. 

For many minutes she sat thus, without venturing again to look 
towards the spot where, as she believed, her enemy lay in ambush; 
and it was at length her ear, and not her eye, which again gave notice 
that some living thing was indeed concealed behind the rich foliage. 
The sound, however, was produced by a movement that no longer 
sought concealment; an active jump and a few bounding steps brought 
the object of her terror and her hatred to her side. 

" Well, now, I expect you'll be more clever, my fine girl," he 
began, " now that we've got neither mother nor brats to watch us. I 
guess it's a first chop bit of good luck for you having jest hit my fancy." 

This speech was accompanied by a repetition of the caresses he had 
proffered in the hut. 

Phebe slipped from his embraces, and standing at some distance from 
him, said — 

" When the white commands the black to labour, the black must 



74 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

obey ;— but when the white commands the black to love, it is only the 
wicked who make believe to do his bidding." 

" That's the stlickest speech, Phebe, that ever I heard a nigger speak 
since first I carried a whip for 'em. Why, there isn't a copper to choose 
between you and the play-actors at New Orlines. — But now, hear me 
a spell. If you won't behave yourself as I would have you, and let me 
see you jump for joy into the bargain, there shall no more skin be left 
on your back than might serve the tailor for a pattern. — D'ye hear 
that, you black she-nigger?" 

The poor girl clasped her hands together, fixed her eyes upon the 
ground, and replied not a word. 

" You will run rusty, then, you darnation idiot?" 

Phebe neither spoke nor moved. 

" And how long, now, d'ye think I shall keep courting, you smut 
you? 'Till everlasting, maybe: — but I expect somehow that our 
courting will come to an end before either of us is much older — and 
I'll tell you how it shall be, blackamoor miss. You'll come to-night 
as the clock strikes nine to Paradise Plantation, and ask for Mr. Jonathan 
Whitlaw, the confidential clerk. I '11 take care you shall find him, 
and I'll take care, too, that you shan't get the lash for being about. — 
Come to be me, d'ye see, at nine o'clock, and I'll give you a pair of 
ear-rings. Stay away — that's all — jest stay away, and you shall have 
Bill Johnson at your bed-side to-morrow morning with a new cat of 
first-rate elegant cow-hide, and we'll see how soon your dainty nig- 
gership will be fit to be about and praying again." 

Saying these words, Whitlaw raised himself from the ground, on 
which he had stretched himself, and walked off, leaving Phebe rather 
in a state of meditation than of despair. 

" If that be all," thought she, — *' if the lash be all I have to fear for 
disobedience, let it come — I can bear it. But how shall I tell Miss 
Lucy to keep away? — It must be done to-night." 

In pursuance of this resolution, Phebe left her mother's side at mid- 
night, and found her way through thickets of briars, with no better light 
than the stars could give by darting a ray here and there through the 
trees. But she knew her way well to Fox's clearing, and reached it, 
a distance of nearly four miles, within an hour. The loft in which 
Lucy Bligh lodged was also well known to her humble friend, and she 
succeeded in waking both her and her brother without disturbing any 
other inmate of the shanty. 

It may be recorded as a proof of delicate and almost sublime affection 
on the part of the poor slave, that she was almost as anxious to conceal 
from her friends the knowledge of the corporeal suffering she was to 
endure on the following morning, as to prevent her connexion with 



JONATHAN JEFF'EKSON WH1TLAW. 75 

them from being betrayed by their making a visit to her hut when she 
could no longer be on the alert to guard against discovery. But to 
achieve this, some skill and a little most innocent artifice were ne- 
cessary. 

In truth, Phebe's spirits had been raised rather than depressed by 
the farewell words of Whillaw; for it appeared to her that she was 
now in some sort the arbitrator of her own destiny, having the choice 
left her of obeying his commands by attending the rendezvous he had 
given, or of submitting to receive the lash on the morrow. 

The hour of appointment having been long passed before she left her 
mother's side, and no measures of coercion used to enforce her keeping 
it, her heart felt lightened of an intolerable load : she believed the ca- 
price which noticed her to be as short-lived as it appeared to her sudden, 
and shaking off, with a degree of firmness that might have befitted a 
heroine, the sick shudder which came over her as she remembered the 
torture she was to endure in the morning, she opened her communi- 
cation to her wondering friends with composure, and almost with 
cheerfulness. 

" You are frightened to see me here, Miss Lucy"? — and Master 
Edward, too, almost? — But all is safe, and all is well; only Master 
Edward must not come to-morrow, nor dear Miss Lucy either — nor 

next day, nor the day after — and perhaps Oh, yes ! it will be 

best and safest not to come at all till you see me here again some night 
to tell you." 

" How is this, Phebe?" said Edward gravely. " You tell us that 
all is safe and that all is well, and yet, that at this time, when our work 
is prospering more than ever it did before, you tell us that our labour 
must cease for many days — nay, longer, perhaps, longer than you can 
say. How is this, Phebe? What does it mean?" 

" Master Edward,"' answered Phebe with the deepest earnestness, 
' » trust to your faithful slave. I would not ask you to remain away, but 
for the safety of the good and holy cause you love so well. If you 

come before, I tell you 1 shall not be able to watch for you as I 

have done." 

" And why not, Phebe?" said Lucy, who with a woman's tact per- 
ceived in a moment that there was something on the poor girl's mind 
which she did not mean to reveal — " Why not, Phebe? — Remember 
you are bound to tell us everything, whether good or bad, that con- 
cerns the object for which we are here : you must hide nothing from 
us, or how can we believe you true?" 

" Oh ! Miss Lucy— But I do not think you would believe me false, 
let me speak or not ; so do not say so — dear, dear mistress, do not say 
that !" 

5 'We do not, we cannot think you false," said Edward; "buf 



70 life and adventures of 

perhaps you take upon you to judge what is best, when, if you would 
conceal nothing, I might form my own opinion in a manner more 
conformable to the interest of the cause I serve, than you can do. — 
Why do you wish us to cease our visits, Phebe ?" 

" No, no ! — not cease ! Only wait, Master Edward, and I will tell 
you why. The master's confidential clerk " 

Poor Phebe's breath seemed to fail her as she named him. 

" What, the man called Whillaw? The same whose approach has 
so frequently interrupted us ? Does it appear that he knows of our 
visits?" inquired Edward. 

" That same man — it is of him, Master Edward, that we must 
beware. I saw him hiding behind the palmetoes after you went to- 
night, and — and he entered mother's house, and threatened to come 
again, and again ; — but if he finds nobody, nor nothing that he expects, 
why then he will give over coming, and I will tell you, and all will 
be safe again." 

Edward m editated upon herwords for some minutes before he an- 
swered her. At length he said, 

" Perhaps, Phebe, this caution may be altogether unnecessary ; and, 
at any rate, I cannot think it needful that I should abstain from vi r 
siting every part of Colonel Dart's plantation because his clerk has 
entered your mother's house. However, as you have hitherto shown 
no want either of zeal or courage in this matter, I will comply with 
your wishes to a certain extent : we will not approach the slave villages 
for two days. This is Wednesday morning ; to-day and to-morrow 
we will not come : but if before Friday evening, after the working- 
hours are over and the people gone to bed, I do not see you here, 
Phebe, you must expect that I shall venture to visit you." 

With this promise, as it was all she could obtain, the poor girl re- 
treated, and almost exhausted by agitation and fatigue, returned so 
slowly through the forest that the first gleam of morning lighted her 
steps as she approached her mother's hut. Nevertheless she stretched 
herself on her pallet as she entered it, rather to prepare herself for the 
torture she anticipated, than with any hope of refreshing her exhausted 
strength by sleep. 

Ere Edward and Lucy Bligh again separated after Phebe left them 
to finish their night's repose, some few words were exchanged between 
them indicative of the different feelings to which her visit had given 
birth. 

" I fear, Lucy," said the young apostle, "that this poor girl wearies 
of the task assigned her. It is much more evident to me that she 
earnestly wishes to prevent our visits to the plantation, than that she 
has any good reason for doing so." 

"You judge her wrongly, brother!" replied Lucy with some 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 17 

warmth : " I feel so sure that she has cause, and good cause too, for 
giving us this caution, that I rather suspect her of diffidence in not 
making her remonstrance more authoritative, than of a falling off in 
zeal for having made it at all." 

" Well, Lucy, we shall see. But at least remember that it is our 
bounden duty to take nothing upon trust that can check our progress. 
I must inquire, and judge for myself." 

" But at least promise me that in doing so you will keep in mind the 
many proofs our poor Phebe has given of devoted zeal and faithful at- 
tachment — remember this, Edward, and for my sake do nothing 
rashly. — Good night !" 

" Good night, dear sister ! I must not skrink from my duty — but 
whatever caution is consistent with that, shall be used. — Good night, 
dear Lucy!" * 



CHAPTER XII. 

Despite the terrible forebodings which harassed her spirits, irresis- 
tible fatigue closed the eyes of poor Phebe before she had stretched her 
limbs upon her bed for five minutes ; and though her last waking 
thought was that in a short hour perhaps the lash of the overseer would 
be suspended over her, she slept soundly. 

She slept soundly, but not long. Hardly was the broad sun fairly 
visible above the horizon, when her mother, who was already risen to 
pursue her labour, was startled by the sound of approaching footsteps, 
and stepped out into the drying-ground before the hut to discover who 
it was that thus early could have business with her. The sight she 
beheld caused her to turn back shuddering, and the exact truth im- 
mediately flashed upon her mind. Two men were striding rapidly to- 
wards her dwelling. The one in advance was Whitlaw ; but though 
he was not walking exactly side by side with his companion, he neves- 
theless was conversing with him, and a loud ribald laugh showed them 
to be on terms of easy freedom. The man who hung a step behind, 
was a fellow named Johnson, perhaps the most detested overseer on 
the estate ; and to render his appearance there more unequivocally 
terrible, he bore aloft in his hand, flourishing it with all the gaiety 
of a spruce postboy, that dreadful emblem of shame and anguish 
called a cow-hide cat. 

The helpless mother could not for a moment doubt who was to be 
the victim, or what the act of disobedience to be punished. Hastily 
going to the straw bed on which her two younger children lay sleeping, 



78 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

she dragged them away, one in each hand, and retreating by the back- 
door into the forest, hurried onward among the bushes in the hope of 
placing herself and the little ones beyond reach of hearing the groans 
which she knew would soon be wrung from the innocent being she 
left. 

Let not the tender European mother turn with disgust from the ap- 
parent selfishness of this retreat. Those only who have seen with their 
own eyes how slavery acts upon the heart, can fairly judge the conduct 
of slaves. They are, in truth, where the yoke is laid on heavily, hardly 
to be considered as responsible, for any act, or for any feeling. The 
dogged quiescence of silent endurance which often gives to the negro 
an aspect of brutal insensibility, may originate from a temper whose 
firmness might have made a hero had the will been free; and poor 
Peggy, when she hurried from the scene of her child's suffering, might 
have carried with her an anguish the bitterness of which no mother 
blessed with the power of protecting her offspring can conceive. 

When Whitlaw and his official entered, Phebe was still asleep : the 
fatigue and exhaustion of the preceding day pressed heavily upon her 
senses, and it was not till the hand of the brutal young man had rudely 
dragged away the rug which covered the bed, that she opened her eyes 
and beheld the hateful countenance that hung over her. 

Heavy as her sleep had been, this sight chased it in an instant. She 
attempted to spring from the bed, but Whitlaw's arm seized and threw 
her back upon it. 

" Soh! you are ready for us, my dainty one, are you? All your 
clothes on, because you expected company — hey?" 
And again the fiendish pair laughed loud. 

"But that's no go, Johnson," continued the ferocious Whitlaw. 
" We shall be stumped outright if we attempt to lash her while she's 
wrapped up this fashion — she won't mind your cat a copper if we let 
her keep her clothes on." 

" Then I expect, my young squire, that we must be after jest giving 
the nigger the trouble to lake 'em off. Be brisk, my beauty," con- 
tinued the fellow, hitting her arms and legs with the handle of the in- 
strument he held ; " I'll smash you outright if you keep me waiting; 
I tell you that to begin, for I've a deal of business to get through before 
sun-down." 

Phebe by a sudden movement sprang from the bed and stood on her 
feet before them. 

"Do not strip me!" she said, clasping her hands together with 
trembling eagerness, — "Do not strip me! Let me go to the rice- 
grounds instead !" 

" Maybe we may pay you that compliment into the bargain, my 
lily ; — you have only got to be uproarious and obstinate enough, and 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 79 

I'll do you all the favours in that line that your fancy can hit upon," said 
Whillaw. " But, jest to begin, you'll be so genteel as to oblige us by 
stripping your top skin, that we may deal as we like with the milk- 
white that we shall find under it." 

Even on Colonel Dart's plantation Phebe had not yet been accus- 
tomed to the lash ; her quick intelligence and patient industry together 
had enabled her so to fulfil her allotted tasks as almost entirely to escape 
it ; and never before had she been exposed to the degrading ceremony 
to which she was now so peremptorily commanded to submit. She 
trembled violently, and felt so sick and giddy that she tottered towards 
the door in the hope of saving herself from fainting. 

" Do you mean to try a run for it?" cried Johnson, looking at her 
without moving, as a dog may be seen to watch a wounded hare, cer- 
tain, let it struggle as it may, that escape is impossible. 

" I should like to see her at it," said Whitlaw. " She's a neat 
little craft for a nigger; and she'd skip handsome over them stumps 
yonder, I'll engage for her. Go it, my beauty!" he continued, clap- 
ping his hands : "off with ye ! You shall have three minutes' law — 
upon my soul you shall." 

Phebe did not run — she had no power to do so ; but she hastened 
with what speed she could to the spring, and from the hollow of her 
hands drank enough of its cold stream to chase the coming faintness : 
she then sprinkled her head and face copiously ; and thus refreshed and 
strengthened, she turned back towards the hut, at the door of which 
Whitlaw and Johnson stood lounging, and each with a cigar in his 
mouth. 

"You are coming back, are you?" cried the former, stepping forward 

to meet her. " Then I'll be d d if she hasn't been thinking better 

of it. So away with you, friend Johnson, and I'll settle this matter 
myself. However, you may as well leave me the cat in case she should 
turn about again." 

Johnson threw down the instrument without speaking, and prepared 
to depart. 

" Please, master, let me be flogged, 1 ' said the poor girl beseechingly, 
— " please let me be flogged, and sent to the rice-grounds afterwards." 

" Stay where you are, Johnson!" roared the brutal Whitlaw ; "she 
shall have it now if I never flog nigger more. Strip, black toad — 
strip, or you shall be soaked in oil and then singed. Strip her, John- 
son, d'ye hear? — and if you can't, by the living Jingo I'll help you." 

The struggling but helpless victim was seized by the two men at the 
same moment, and the abhorrent threat would have been quickly exe- 
cuted, had not a discordant laugh from the outside of the hut startled 
and caused them to desist from their occupation while they turned to 
ascertain whence the strange interruption proceeded. 



80 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

The figure which now presented itself at the door might have appalled 
any one who beheld it for the first time. A negress, seeming to have 
been originally of almost dwarfish stature, and now bent nearly double 
with age, whose head was covered with wool as white as snow, and 
whose eyes rolled about with a restless movement that appeared to in- 
dicate insanity, stood on the threshold of the door, one hand resting on 
a stout bamboo, and the other raised with its finger pointed as if in 
mockery of the group within ; and again a croaking laugh burst from 
her. 

The person of the intruder was known to them all, and moreover she 
was but a time-worn paralytic slave ; yet there was that about her 
which neither the callous indifference of the driver, nor the bold au- 
dacity of the confidential clerk, could look upon unmoved. 

This wretched relic of a life of labour and woe had been on the 
plantation longer than its owner or any of his numerous dependants 
could remember — her age was indeed asserted by many among them 
to exceed greatly the length of days usually allotted to even the happiest 
and idlest of the human race, and yet it was recorded of her that she 
had borne more children and performed more extraordinary tasks than 
any other slave was ever before believed to have done. Either in con- 
sequence of this species of renown, or for some other reasons con- 
nected with her former history, she was considered by her master and 
all his myrmidons as a sort of privileged personage, neither expected 
to perform any sort of labour — of which indeed she appeared perfectly 
incapable, — nor to answer at any of the musters, nor to be challenged 
for any of her wanderings or wild freaks whatever. 

The feeling concerning her wavered, according to the character and 
temperament of different individuals, between reverence for a being in 
some sort supernatural, and the mixed pity and fear inspired by the 
presence of a maniac. 

The slaves, with the sole exception perhaps of poor Phebe, firmly 
believed her to be immortal, and in close communion with some spirit 
of the air, who at her bidding would bring weal or woe upon the white 
man or the negro according as they pleased or offended her ; and she 
was accordingly treated with invariable kindness and respect by them 
all. How much of this superstilition was shared by the whites, it 
might be difficult to say ; but the unwonted licence and indulgence 
accorded her seemed to indicate, considering at whose hands she re- 
ceived it, some sentiment by no means commonly shown by the white 
race to the black. 

" Rose, Rose, coal-black Rose ! 
I wish I may be scotched if I don't love Rose !" 

were the first words the beldam articulated after she had ceased her 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHiTLAW. 81 

shout of unnatural laughter. " Oh, massa clerk 1" she added, M dat 
be your way making lub !" and again the cabin seemed to ring with her 
discordant laughter. 

Whitlaw had quitted his grasp of Phebe the instant she appeared, 
and now stood pale with rage, or fear, or both, and apparently unde- 
cided as to what he should do or say next. 

In order fully to comprehend the conduct of my hero on this and 
some future occasions, it will be necessary to remember that his educa-* 
tion for the first eleven years of his life was of the very lowest kind, 
and precisely such as to substitute superstition for religion in his mind : 
nor were the subsequent years, during which he acquired the know- 
ledge of reading and writing at Natchez, at all less likely to inculcate 
error, instead of truth, respecting the immaterial world, than were 
those which preceded them. 

Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw is no solitary instance of a sharp, ac- 
tive, bold sort of intellect, which at the very moment that it boasts its 
scepticism in religion, secretly owns and trembles before the influence 
of superstition. 

The moment previous to that at which the palsied and decrepit hag 
entered, Whitlaw stood fearless and undaunted before Heaven, ready 
to commit the most hideous crimes in defiance of its laws ; but now he 
stood doubting and unnerved before her, as if awaiting her fiat either 
to prosecute or abandon his purpose. 

"I say, massa clerk," said the old negress, again suspending her 
mirth, — " I say, massa, you come wid me under dem black trees, and 
I leach you summat; — but step softly, massa — don't scare de green 
birds — they are Juno's spirits." 

As she spoke, she walked across the hut to the back door, which 
opened upon the forest. Her pace was a singular mixture of activity 
and decrepitude, every step being something between a jump and a 
hobble. When she reached the door, she turned to see if he whom 
she had summoned were following her ; and on perceiving that he still 
stood beside the girl as if undecided, she twisted her uncouth features 
into a most portentous frown, and raising her bamboo, seemed to be 
drawing figures with it in the air. 

The young man hesitated no longer, but, as if under the influence of 
her wand, stepped hastily after her. She laid the bamboo lightly on 
his shoulder as he approached, and peering up into his face, fixed for 
a moment her restless eyes upon his; then removing her staff, and 
pointing it towards Johnson, she uttered in a sort of chant, but totally 
free from all negro peculiarity of pronunciation, 

" Solemn words must secret be ! 
No ear must hear, no eye must see, 
What shall pass 'twixt thee and me." 



82 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Whitlaw immediately made his attendant a sign to depart, which 
was promptly and silently obeyed. The old woman then proceeded 
towards the trees ; and Whitlaw followed her, leaving Phebe stand- 
ing in the middle of the floor trembling between hope and fear, but 
thanking Heaven with tearful gratitude for this most unexpected re- 
prieve. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

f Half-an-hour before midnight on the following Friday, Edward 
and Lucy Bligh, who had passed the interval in anxious but vain ex- 
pectation of seeing Phebe, set out together to reconnoitre her dwelling, 
and to discover, with as much caution as possible, the cause of her 
delay. The crescent moon, which on the night of Phebe's visit to 
them had set at too early an hour to befriend her, now made the first 
part of their expedition delightful ; and as they walked hand-in-hand 
through the primeval forest, any who had listened to their conversa- 
tion, and marked their young faces in the fine clear obscure of that 
faint light, might have fancied that they were the spirits of some 
purer and holier race, permitted to revisit the land their kindred had 
lost. 

Lucy was a good walker, but the distance which Phebe had traversed 
in fifty minutes took her an hour and a quarter, and the moon had set 
and heavy darkness hung upon the landscape when at last they reached 
the solitary hut of Peggy. So cloudy and dark indeed was the night 
become, that it was more by the rippling sound of the little stream that 
trickled from the spring behind the washerwoman's dwelling, than from 
any object their eyes could distinguish, that they perceived at length 
that they were at the termination of their walk. 

They now approached the door of the hut, and cautiously listened 
for a sound either within or near it; but all was profoundly still. 
Lucy, who fancied she should be exposed to less danger if discovered 
than her brother, prevailed on him to remain at some short distance 
from the door while she attempted to open it. The latch yielded to her 
touch, and she entered ; but the darkness was such that she could dis- 
cern nothing. 

"Phebe 1" she said in a low soft voice hardly above a whisper. 

' ' Phebe ! — who is it calls on Phebe?" exclaimed the voice of Peggy ; 
" who is it calls for my poor, poor lost child?" 

"It is I — it is Lucy Bligh," was the reply. "Why do you call 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 83 

her lost? — Tell me, Peggy, where she is gone, and who you have with 
in the hut?" 

"Oh, mistress ! mistress 1" sobbed out the wretched mother, " then 
she is not run away to you? — Oh me ! Oh me ! — that was my only 
hope!" 

"She was with me late on Tuesday night, Peggy," replied Lucy, 
gently approaching the bed ; " but I have never seen her since. When 
did she quit the hut?" 

" Let me get up — let me come out with you into the air I — I feel 
choking, mistress !" replied the poor negress, who was in truth at that 
moment totally unfit for any exclamation. 

"Do so, my poor Peggy," replied her former mistress kindly. 
"My brother is near at hand — I will go and bring him into the porch 
while you get your clothes on ,• and I trust that we may be able amongst 
us to find out where my poor Phebe is gone." 

Lucy then groped her way out of the hut, and in a few minutes re- 
turned with her brother to the open porch which connected the two 
chambers of the hut, and having cautiously advanced through buckets 
and rinsing tubs, at last discovered a bench, on which they seated 
themselves in total darkness to await the coming of Peggy. 

" Are you here, mistress?" was pronounced almost close to the ear 
of Lucy before the sound of any foot-fall had given notice that the ne- 
gress approached them. 

"We are both here, Peggy," replied Edward ; "can you not strike 
a light, that we may see each other while we converse ? We have 
never had a night so dark as this." 

" A light, Master Edward ! — you were raised on the old master's 
grounds, and you don't know yet what slavery means. If 1 was to 
kindle a light, we would have a dozen cow-hides hanging over us — at 
least over me, Master Edward — in less than ten minutes." 

"Well, then," said Lucy, " we will do without a light. But tell 
us about Phebe — when did she leave you?" 

"Oh me! it was I left her!" replied the poor slave, weeping bit- 
terly, — " it was I left her, Miss Lucy ! — Had I stopped by her, I must 
have knowed something ; and now I know nothing — nothing !" 

The inquiries of Edward elicited an account of the scene which took 
place between Whitlaw and Phebe on the evening he had last quitted the 
hut: and when Peggy repeated the cruel threats with which it had 
concluded, Lucy exclaimed with a burst of uncontrollable emotion — 
"Did I not tell you, Edward, that she was true to us?— Oh, my poor 
Phebe! it was this that she would not tell! — She knew how much we 
would have done to save her, and she feared the danger it might cost us 
— dear, generous Phebe ! — But I will find her if she be above ground ; 
— what have I to fear? — I am not a slave. — Edward ! shall we not seek 

6* 



81 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

for Phebe, in spite of master, overseers, and all ! We are not black 
blood ; — what is the worst we can fear?" 

" Murder!" in a deep distinct whisper, was the answer to this ques- 
tion ; and so peculiar was the tone in which it was pronounced, that 
the brother and sister started, for neither of them recognised in it the 
voice of their old servant. Nevertheless, it was Peggy who uttered it ; 
and in the next moment she added, but still in so low a tone as to show r 
that even in that hour of universal rest she feared a listener, " Nothing 
less is now punishment enough for any white who dares openly to be- 
friend a slave." 

Bligh well knew that this doctrine was daily becoming more general 
among the planters. The principles of the "Lynch Law," which 
have since been openly recognised, acknowledged, and acted upon 
with impunity in the face of day, and before the eyes of thousands of 
American citizens, were indeed at that time only beginning to show 
themselves in occasional acts of desperate ferocity, which though from 
the first they were permitted to pass unpunished by the legislatures of 
the States in which they were committed, had not then fully reached 
the sort of tacit legality at which they soon afterwards arrived ; but 
Edward, when from time to time he heard of the outrages perpetrated 
at New Orleans, had felt, while he shuddered at their atrocity, a 
something at his heart which seemed like a foretaste of martyrdom. 

If there were any mixture therefore of human terror in this sensa- 
tion, the young enthusiast was himself unconscious of it ; and if his 
pulse had fluttered and his cheek grown paler than ordinary while 
listening to the frightful tales which reached him in his forest dwelling, 
it was only when some idea of Lucy's being exposed to danger sug- 
gested itself. 

Thus was it with him now, as he heard the prophetic denunciation 
of Peggy upon all who should seek to befriend her race. He trembled 
— and stretching out a cold damp hand to seek that of his sister, who 
sat beside him, he said sternly, 

" It is your first duty, Lucy, to obey implicitly the brother to whose 
care it has pleased the Almighty to consign you ; — speak not then so 
presumptuously of what it is your purpose to do. I have made you, 
Lucy, my companion in a perilous enterprise ; but I did so in the 
belief that no rash or self-willed measures on your part would ever 
thwart or trouble me." 

"Edward!" exclaimed the startled girl, eagerly grasping his ex- 
tended hand, "what reason can you have to doubt my willing obedience 
to everything you wish ? — What have I said, dear brother, to make 
you speak thus ?" 

"Forgive me, love!" replied Edward, recovering himself ; "I 
was very wrong to doubt you ; — but in truth you terrified me when 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 85 

I heard you talk of seeking Phebe. This would not be the way to 
assist her, Lucy : whatever is done in this must be done most cau- 
tiously, for her sake as well as your own. — But we have not yet 
heard all. What happened, Peggy, after your daughter returned 
from Fox's clearing ? You have seen her since, have you not ?" 

The bereaved mother then related the having perceived the approach 
ofWhitlaw and Johnson on the following morning, and confessed, 
with the bitterest expressions of self-reproach, that rather than witness 
the outrage and cruelty which threatened her child, she had escaped 
with her two little ones into the forest, where she remained in a state 
of unspeakable misery for about an hour, and then returned sick and 
trembling to her hut, which she found totally deserted, and with no 
trace of the scene that had probably been acted there, but the cow-hide 
that Johnson had thrown on the floor when Whitlaw had first com- 
manded him to retire. 

For several minutes after Peggy had concluded her narrative, no 
sound was heard in the still darkness which surrounded them but the 
stifled sobs of the poor negress. Lucy was silent, lest the expression 
of her strong feelings might renew the displeasure of her brother ; and 
Edward himself was too deeply occupied in pondering upon the mys- 
terious disappearance of the girl, to speak hastily on the subject. At 
length he said, 

" Your grief is so violent, Peggy, that it is plain you fear some- 
thing very terrible. — Let us know all. What is the worst you fear? 
Do you think that wretch Whitlaw will kill her?" 

Edward might have been puzzled how to interpret without the com- 
mentary of words the bitter smile which this question brought to the 
lips of the poor slave ; but he saw it not, — and in a moment she 
answered, 

" Kill her, master ! — No, they will not kill her, no more than they 
would the finest horse in the colonel's stable. My Phebe is the flower 
of all his gang — there is none other like her I" And again tears choked 
her utterance. 

''Then you can fear nothing for her," resumed Edward, " worse 
than what you fled to the forest to avoid seeing. Think not, poor soul ! 
that I speak lightly of this," he continued, in a voice of the tenderesl 
compassion ; " God knows it cannot be more horrible in your eyes 
than in mine; but if you think her life is safe " 

"But where, Master Edward," exclaimed the mother in agony of 
grief, — "where is she to live? — That will be the punishment. My 
Phebe loved her mother ! — there's not an overseer on the estate but 
knows that : for if my limbs ached, it was she was up in the morning 
to lighten my work ; and when I was sick and afraid to say it, it was 
she was away to the overseer to tell it, and frighten them into thinking 



86 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

they might lose my labour, and then making all straight by offering 
to be double tasked. The devil clerk, Master Edward, knows all 
this, and he has taken her from me on purpose to torture her." 

" Likely enough, my poor Peggy," replied Edward ; " but, as you 
are aware that the profit of your owner is the first object, do you not 
see that it is probable they will not separate you long? They must 
know that you work better together than you could asunder." 

"But that's not all — that's not all !" cried Peggy bitterly ; " 'tis the 
price they'll get for her ! — Oh, Master Edward, I have always trem- 
bled for that ! Black Phebe is counted such a handsome girl, that at 
New Oriines, they say, she'd fetch double what her value would be if 
she was only kept for her work." 

The miserable truth these words contained admitted of no consola- 
tion; and the faintly-expressed hope that this most cruel measure 
might not be resorted to, was all her pitying friends could give. 

Lucy started as she perceived that the objects around her were 
becoming faintly visible. 

"We must go, Edward," said she with nervous agitation. "It 
was our being here on Tuesday evening that brought on all this 
misery. Let us not be found here again, or poor Peggy may be 
made more wretched still." 

A few minutes longer were occupied in listening to Peggy's earnest 
prayers that they would use the privilege " their blessed white skin" 
gave them — such was her phrase — to inquire at Natchez, and in 
all directions round about, whether "Black Phebe" had been sold. 

Edward very solemnly gave his promise that he would fearlessly 
use every means in his power to obtain intelligence respecting her; 
and then, leaving some pastoral instructions to be cautiously delivered 
to his flock during the time he might be employed in this perilous 
quest, he again led forth his sister into the forest, through which they 
now found their way without difficulty, by help of the faint light, 
which gradually increased upon them as they advanced. — But the 
spirits of both were heavily oppressed. Lucy trembled with the most 
affectionate anxiety for the safety of her humble friend ; and Edward 
felt more keenly than he had ever before done, how terrible was the 
responsibility he had taken upon himself in leading his young sister 
into dangers from which he might find he had no power to shield her. 
If the peril had threatened himself alone, he would have hailed it as 
a summons to glory ; but when the frightful idea crossed him that 
Lucy might share it, his courage failed entirely, his heart sunk within 
him, and tears trembled in his eyes, while he pressed the pale girl to 
his bosom as he reached the threshold of their own rude home. 

"Lie down, my poor Lucy, lor an hour or two," he said, tenderly 
kissing her: "my head is working strangely upon what we have 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 87 

heard this night, — I want to be alone, and will wander about for 
another hour or so, and then return to fix the corn-cakes for our 
breakfast. When they are ready, I will call you, and you shall see 
if I am not almost as skilful as yourself. — Go to rest, dear love ! 
Sleep, dear Lucy, — sleep!" 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Edward Bligh had indeed need to be alone. Never till now had 
his poor spirit been harassed by that worst of human anxieties,— a 
conscientious doubt as to what it was his duty to do. 

Not only had he pledged himself secretly and solemnly before 
Heaven to devote himself body and soul to alleviate* the miseries of 
American slaves, but he had this night given a promise to one amongst 
them who, from her well-known worth and faithful services, deserved 
his warmest zeal ; — to her he had promised to be an active agent in 
discovering her daughter, though he knew that daughter to be in the 
hands of one who had power and will to punish any interference with 
the most terrible severity. Could he perform this promise without 
involving his sister in the danger ?— could he break it without violating 
the vow he had voluntarily pronounced before God? 

The agony of his mind was terrible. Could he have seen Lucy 
placed in safety, his own path would have been plain before him ; — 
nay, it would have appeared to his exalted contemplation both easy 
and delightful. He firmly believed that it might, and probably would, 
lead him to death ; but it would be the blessed death of a martyr, and 
he hugged the idea of it with a sort of rapture. But even at the mo- 
ment that he seemed to see a crown of glory waiting for him, the 
image of Lucy came before his eyes, and his hope and his strength 
failed at once. At one moment he had convinced himself that it was 
his duty to leave Louisiana immediately, and pursue the business of 
teaching with his orphan sister either in the State of Ohio, or any 
other not infected with the mildew of slavery which they might be 
able to reach. But scarcely had he permitted himself to breathe freely 
as one whose doubts were over, when, not only Peggy and Phebe, 
but all his woodland congregation resumed their place in his memory, 
and he held himself in abhorrence as a renegade and a coward. 

This mental strife lasted much beyond the hour he had allotted for 
his walk ; but the corn-cakes were forgotten, and the weary Edward 
threw himself at length upon the ground utterly exhausted both in 
mind and body. 



88 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

In this situation, " Nature's kind restorer" settled on his eyelids, 
and he slept long and soundly. When he awoke, all things appeared 
to wear a different aspect. Multitudes of birds were joyously singing 
around him ; the bright sun shone furtively through the trees, chequer- 
ing the ground with golden trellis-work ; and the sweet morning air 
seemed to bring new life and vigour to his spirit. 

Earnest and ardent was the prayer which followed his waking, and 
he rose from his knees cheered, strengthened, and full of hope. 

There is an ever alertness in the spirit at such an hour as this, which 
enables us both readily to suggest and promptly to decide on what we 
have to do. Before his homeward path was fully trod, Edward had 
completely settled in his own mind what his future line of conduct 
should be ; and the cheerful air with which he apologised to Lucy, 
whom he found engaged in performing the task he had himself under- 
taken, for having lingered so long, made her bless the effect of the 
lengthened walk which she had wept to think of. 

Their breakfast of milk and corn-bread was eaten hastily, for the 
children who attended their school were already seen approaching by 
more than one forest-path. Edward started up, saying, 

"Lucy! will you undertake once more to-day to perform the 
work which rightfully belongs to me? — Will you keep school without 
me?" 

I 1 " Most certainly I will, dearest Edward," she replied; " and if, as 
I guess, you have hit upon some promising expedient for the discovery 
of my poor Phebe, the double duty will seem very light." 

Though these words implied no direct question, Edward felt that 
his sister expected to learn from him why he was about to absent 
himself; and his projects were as yet too vague to justify his stating 
them. After a moment's pause, however, he answered cheerfully, — 
"I am going to Natchez, Lucy. There are, you know, four 
dollars destined to be expended in the purchase of some needful com- 
forts for our establishment here. Now, I flatter myself that by means 
of a little store-gossip where I shall buy one thing, and a little more 
where I shall buy another, I may pick up all the the news stirring 
about the sale of negroes, which is as interesting a theme there as the 
barter of horses among jockeys. If Phebe has been sold since Wed- 
nesday, I think I shall find it out. Should this be the case, notwith- 
standing poor Peggy's grief, I shall be thankful, as your unfortunate 
favourite cannot be in worse hands than those of Colonel Dart and his 
detestable parasite Whitlaw. If, on the contrary, she has not been 

sold " Here Edward paused, for he knew there was no comfort 

to be found in the alternative ; but, after a moment's silence, he added, 
" If she has not been sold, I must endeavour to discover among our 
poor scattered flock, what has been her fate.'' 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 89 

The importance of the errand as thus stated appeared to Lucy 
amply sufficient to account for her brother's walk to Natchez ; so, beg- 
ging God's blessing upon him, she waved him off, and immediately sat 
down surrounded by a dozen boys and girls, and for six long hours 
devoted herself to the drudgery of teaching. 

Edward had very faithfully explained a part of his business, but not 
the whole of it. It was indeed his purpose to discover, if possible, 
whether Phebe had been sold ; and he felt pretty certain that if this 
had happened, he should hear of it. But there was another and a 
dearer object which took him from his daily task, the hope of success 
in which gave elasticity to his step and a cheering warmth to his heart. 
He hoped at Natchez to hear of some occupation for Lucy which 
might shelter her from the danger he was deeply persuaded must soon 
fall upon himself. Could he succeed in this, all the painful vacillation 
he had recently suffered from, w r ould, he well knew, leave him for 
ever; and unchecked by fear or doubt of any kind, he should move 
steadily onward in the path he had traced for himself, and which, it 
was his earnest hope, would lead him at no very distant period to the 
point where lie might pass from earth to heaven. 

The distance to Natchez was about five miles ; and his sound nap in 
the forest, together with the hope that cheered him, caused him totally 
to forget his night of anxious watchfulness, and he found himself 
already looking down from the bright green slope on which stands this 
singular little town, equally blessed by nature and accursed by man, 
before he thought that he could have traversed half the distance. 

Edward Bligh was not perhaps likely to be particularly successful in 
any business in which that style of colloquy usually denominated gossip 
was of necessity to make a part. But on this particular occasion he 
seemed inspired ; and in justice to the versatility of his powers, we must 
follow him in his talk as he rambled from store to store. 

He first entered the wide, multifarious magazine of Mr. Monroe 
Vandumper. Though it was still early in the forenoon, there were no 
less than seven gentlemen of first-rate standing at Natchez indulging 
in the luxury of a cigar in and about the store. Three of these were 
perched in attitudes of undoubted ease, but rather questionable ele- 
gance, on bales or boxes placed outside the door; and the other four 
were accommodated within it, in a manner evidently very satisfactory 
to themselves, but which would probably have been the last chosen by 
the inhabitants of any other country when engaged in a search after 
comfort. 

One sat astride the counter ; a second had climbed to a third tier of 
woollen cloths set edgeways, apparently with no other object than to 
place his heels upon a shelf immediately above the door of entrance, 
so that by a judicious position of his head he was enabled to peep be- 



90 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

tween his knees at every person who entered : the third sat deep sunk 
in an empty cask ; while the fourth balanced himself on one leg out of 
four of a stool so placed as to permit his hitching his heels on the bar 
from which the shop-scales for coffee, sugar, and the like, were sus- 
pended over the counter. 

Edward Bligh entered this store, inlending that the purchase of a 
pound of coffee should lead the way to conversation either with the 
master of it, or his customers ; and to facilitate this, he began by exa- 
mining some "negro shoes," as they are called, which lay piled up 
half-way to the ceiling on one side of the magazine. 

" Famous good shoes these, sir," said he to the only man who had 
not a cigar in his mouth, and whom he rightly judged to be the master, 
though he was earnestly occupied in reading a newspaper; capital 
make — what may be the damage, sir, of half-a-dozen of them ?" 

"That's according, I expect," replied Mr. Monroe Vandumper, 
without raising his eyes from the paper. 

"Any particular news, sir, to-day?" resumed Edward, still con- 
tinuing his examination of the negro-shoes. 

"Umph! responded Mr. Vandumper; "what part of the country 
may you be from? — Back-woods away, I guess?" 

"Just so, sir," replied Edward good-humouredly ; " and it's quite 
a treat to come to Natchez and hear a little how the world goes. 
They're beginning to get feverish at New Orleans, I hear; but I hope 
you've nothing of the sort here as yet?" 

"Do you want them shoes?" was the only answer vouchsafed to 
this inquiry by Mr. Monroe Vandumper ; but Edward was too deeply 
interested in his object to be easily discouraged, and practising a little 
artifice which upon any less occasion he would have scorned, he took 
a handful of silver and copper money from his pocket, saying, 

"We back-woodsmen, you know, sir, sometimes want more than 
we have dollars to pay for ; and so I must see all I can, and choose for 
the best at last. "Tis not exactly for myself I was inquiring about the 
shoes ; but a neighbour of mine owns slaves, and it is about them that I 
was asking. And, now I think of it, he told me to inquire in the town 
here, if there has been any sale lately of young plantation blacks. He 
wants a girl that can wash and iron, and he would not stand for price. 
You have not seen any advertisement that you think might suit, — have 
you, sir?" 

" That's considerable more than I can pretend to say. I see over 
many to remember much of any of 'em. But if you're looking after 
that commodity, you'd best step over the way by the market younder, 
and you'll see advertisements stuck up everlasting there." 

" Then that's jest what I'll do, sir ; but first I'll trouble you to sell 
me a pound of coffee." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WIIITLAW. 91 

There was something in the sweet voice and gentle bearing of Ed- 
ward that might have disarmed the churlishness of Cerberus; and its 
influence was felt not only by Mr. Monroe Vandumper himself, who 
actually laid aside his newspaper and set about weighing the coffee, but 
also by the elegant youth who was swinging his legs, one on each 
side the counter, and who having just finished his cigar, thus bespoke 
him: 

" So you're after finding a smart smut — are you, my lad ? Confound 
them all, say 1 1 A fine rumpus they've been making at Oglevie's, 
down at the factory by the river, near Orlines. Why, if they haven't 
had the unbelievable impudence to be found with three tracts and a 
newspaper hid under one of ttie presses, may I never taste another 
cigar! — and two of the black devils absconded." 

"Is that lately, sir?" said Edward. 

"Five days ago, by G — d !" replied the young man, bringing his 
off-leg over the counter, and letting both hang down close to Edward's 
arm, — ' ' only Monday last : and when the tracts were found, and stuck 
up burning upon the end of a cane, the whole gang set up such a howl 
that the foreman was right-down scared. The head clerk is a brother 
of my own, and he come up in a steamer yesterday to look at a lot of 
infernal trash of the same sort that was picked up in some cotton- 
grounds hereabouts. They hope to trace the white rascals they come 
from ; and it's determined on all sides that they shall be tarred and 
burnt to death in the nearest market-place, let them be found where 
they may." 

" That will be sport, at any rate!" observed the gentleman who was 
ensconced in the tub. " I would not mind having to flog a nigger or 
two out of their work for a week, to have the glory of seeing a saint 
burnt for it." 

"I expect not, squire," said the balancing occupant of the stool: 
" it would pay any of us well for the loss of a dozen lazy black devils 
for a week, such a sight as that; and what's more, we must contrive to 
have it soon, or I calculate worse will follow. I'm positive certain 
that some of my black varment are being learned to read ; and if that 
spreads, we'll have an insurrection and be murdered in our beds before 
we're a year older, as sure as the sun's in heaven." 

*.' Massa want tree pound of baccy," said a fine-looking negro lad, 
approaching the receipt of custom with money for the purchase on his 
extended palm. 

*' You be d — d !" cried the young man on the counter, raising one 
of his feet as he spoke, and giving a sharp kick to the boy's hand, the 
money, which consisted of some copper and one or two small silver 
coins, was scattered far and wide on the floor, 



m LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Every white man in the store, save Edward, burst into a shout of 
laughter. 

The young negro was in an agony of terror, and threw himself on 
the ground to recover the money ; but his persecutor sprang from the 
counter, and assiduously collecting with his feet all the dust and rubbish 
on the floor to cover the coins, and occasionally kicking aside the hands 
of the boy as he sought to recover them, produced such a continuation 
of noisy merriment from the lookers-on, that the loungers outside the 
store were induced to enter, in order to inquire its cause. 

No sooner was the jest made known, than the clamour, kickings, and 
buffetings became general; while the ppor victim, suffering alike from 
present pain and the dread of future punishment, groaned aloud as his 
tormentors rolled him from one to the other beneath their feet. Drops 
of agony stood on Edward's brow. Could he for one moment have 
possessed a giant's strength, he would willingly have consented to die 
the next, might he but have used it to crush the wretches whose 
wanton, cowardly barbarity he was thus forced to witness. He turned 
to the door for air, and a moment's reflection closed his idle rage, 
while it strengthened a thousand-fold the steadfast purpose of his 
heart. 

" You've got fine fun there, I expect — there's no denying that," 
said Mr. Vandumper, recovering at length from his fit of immoderate 
laughter; " but I'll be burnt if I don't make you pay for the baccy 
yourselves; so quit, and let the varment get up and do his errand." 

The weather was warm, and the exercise they were engaged in 
violent, so that Mr. Vandumper's remonstrance was seconded by 
fatigue, and after one final kick from each, the sport ended, and the 
negro-boy was suffered to search among the dust for the money he 
had lost. He recovered it all except one small silver coin of the value 
of six cents. Having sought for this in vain for several minutes, he 
rose to his feet as if inspired by a sudden ray of hope, and with a look 
of innocent entreaty that might have moved a savage, said, 

' ' You give me the baccy, massa, for this?" holding out the recovered 
money as he spoke. 

Mr. Monroe Vandumper received the money and counted it. 
4 'Now, isn't he an impudent varment?" he exclaimed, turning to 
the weary jesters, who were wiping their brows after the sport. "Isn't 
he a proper nigger? — You black dirt, you! d'ye think I'll trust such a 
one as you a picciune ?" 

Exhausted as they were, this sally produced another hearty laugh 
from the bystanders ; while Edward, whose eyes were fixed upon the 
boy, saw him visibly tremble, and such an expression of terror took 
possession of his young features, that, thoughtless of the observations 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 93 

it might provoke, he supplied the piece of money that was wanting, 
saying, 

" Off with you, boy, with your baccy; and then I shall get my 
coffee, you see." 

A glance of mingled surprise and rapture shot from the large eyes of 
the boy as he fixed them for a moment on the face of his benefactor; 
but Edward had the prudence to take no farther notice of him. 

Mr. Vandumper whistled a bar or two of Yankee Doodle without 
speaking, weighed the three pounds of tobacco, tied it up, again counted 
the money that had been laid upon the counter, and then pushing the 
parcel to the young slave, dismissed him with saying, " Go and be 
flogged for wasting your master's time, you black imp!" 

The boy gave one more speaking glance at Edward and departed. 
As he reached the door, the gentleman who was perched aloft close to 
it, and who had taken no farther part in the scene that had just passed 
than cheering the actors in it by shouts of laughter, stooping forward 
his head as the boy passed under him, contrived accurately to spit 
upon him as he went out. Once more the chamber rang with 
laughter ; and then Edward received his pound of coffee and left the 
shop. 



CHAPTER XV. 

In pursuance of the advice he had received, Edward Bligh proceeded 
to the market-place of Natchez ; and there in truth he found, stuck 
conspicuously upon every point of vantage, unnumbered advertise- 
ments of the sale of negroes, singly, in couples, in families, and in 
gangs. But it appeared to him that there was not one which could 
include Phebe. 

While earnestly occupied in this examination he was addressed by 
a voice quite unknown to him. 

"You're looking for a bargain, are ye? — Yet somehow I calculate 
that you have no great notion neither about furnishing yourself with 
negroes. Maybe, mister, you are one of them what thinks slavery an 
abomination? Such folks are very plentiful, I hear, up the country 
now-a-days." 

Edward turned to look at the person who spoke, and instantly 
recognised the hateful countenance of the man who from his lofty sta- 
tion in Vandumper 's store had offered the last parting insult to the poor 
negro-boy. 

A feeling of antipathy induced Bligh to turn away without answering; 



H Ufl ank aiaj.vium/. 09 

bui itfirrif-.'Ji.ii* i/ rwoileetingttonurpdee lot which ho wacal Natchez 
I i„ ..i p ji- , look ing at an adrertl foment i tew f« I dl 4eil, 
sod r< plii & • ivilly, — 

" n. certain] / ftnol on my own account, air, that 1 im looking out 
_My fain I many ikrvee, but hi died I bankrupt, aa4 J am 

too pool ,r > own one 

'I |j<. itrai ' i"'" with evident curioiity 

" Vou aree itrangei In Natchez, I thiol '" 

" in wiiai si oui feihet'i plantation 1 

iv fiihi i if in Kantual 

44 Kentucky ?— -They don't knr>%v overmuch .'hoot managing nigferi 
to Kentucky*— You in a larmer'i on, are you? end your fathei 

( li f .,j ., | ,,,i. # <),.] i,. ' Thai muil be Inconvenient enough, no 
doubt, -And '' rou do ■• iittle in the i like, ii that It?" 

\o t ,, . ihi comml ilon rai quite Accidental, h i w « J wi i''«t 
eemii Iche&i My builneee now ia keeping a daj tthooV' 

h ^ ichool? — I though) ;«>" told iih you "<m< from lliu hack 
wo',-: 

" So I do, ho. though from no great diftanee , and there arc many 
j n„. , in,,, . roun (] ibout who are glad to pay i few dollari to bare 
u„-ii i hlldren kept out ol ml ichiel ind taught to read " 

»< li., re fou any negro school - in Kentucl ■;. m f lad I ' 

" I believe not, ill 

■ Butiome ol the nig mmon knowing (here, I an told 

Did you. fathei And it ■<> with hi ■ P 

I think not, " They moil ol them appeared profoundly 
ignorant 

• a„ ( i („ ; i rate beacily rtupid loo, I take if Bui ma '" ihat'i net 
v ( ,ui notion concerning them 1 Maybe jfoueipe< I LI bl be made 

Into human eretui i contrary lonatur, H they had but i fotwlfaioiei 
two to belp '« ■•" ' 

■| i,. re irai eomething ta the men'i mannei from Ihe fit 4 which led 
Edward loeuipect that be had iome ' r ■'•' ni *ddr< ning Mm , 

.,,,-i iheie iait irordi not only confirmed thii idea, but Indicated plainly 
enough what the obje< I • <'■ lh< quettionei lied Hi ■" i Thle 

bad in truth, wink icated alofl in the (lore, narrowly watched 
,i,, ci .,i Bligh during tti in that p 

there; arid alien al length he law one whoie drew wm hardly abate 
ii,,, i ,,i a labour i givi m< i< »te the negro boy from bieem 

barre i urn nt, very little doubt remained on hi i mind that Ihe pale but 
higj / hand form young m in tho call* d him ■••u I bat i kroed i 
,„.,,, v/.). ii< 1 1 1 1 ' i more noi l< ■ than one ol thote who dared td eiilei 
,i , (i || • i i n in. band Ibat many wofe had 



JONATHAN JRKKERHON WIUTLAW. M 

left behind them, as they quietly passed through that land, some (races 
of knowledge and of truth Concerning both tins world and thai, which is 
to come, was a fact <>f Which Louisianans, in common with (ho in- 
habitants of all other slave-holding States, had recently become vory 
painfully aware. 

When first this danger threatened, the legislatures of most of these 
Stales contented themselves by framing laws, brief, perrnptory, and 
severe, against all such as should be found engaged in teaching slaves 
the unlawful arts of reading and writing. Jlut this slow, dillieult, and, 
under these laws, dangerous process, was not the only one rosorled to 

by the bold men who ventured to grapple with the slaveholders for 

tin; souls of their victims, though they had no power to redeem their 
bodies. 

The sort of phrenetic rage which the discovery of this plot, as it was 
called, excited among the slave-holders, is now pretty generally 
known to the world by tin; acts to which it has led, and might really 

lead one to believe that the religious creed of ihese persons taught 

them to expect that their rights over the negro race Were not to 
be forfeited like other mortal tenures by death, hut would hold good 
to ail eternity in the life to eorne, provided that no emaneipalion was 

obtained there for their slaves by the interference of meddling Chris- 
tians while on earth. 

Not very long before the period of which I Write, some of (he 
wealthiest planters in tin; neighbourhood of New Orleans met together 
in secret conclave to consult on the means most likely to check the 
growing evil. Some among (hem an; said lo have gone the length of 
proposing that State laws should be enacted, making ; the being caught 
in the fact of giving religious instruction to 8 slave a capital oll'cnce, 
in all cases to be punishable by death. Shit it was suggested that 
American citizens of the free States might possibly object to such 

power being given to any jurisdiction, for offences not recognised by 

the national law, over white men born in the Union, and under tin; 
protection of its stars and its Stripes. 

" What then was to be done? Wen; the landholders and merchants 
of the wealthiest part of the Union to have their dearest interests con- 
tinually endangered by illegal efforts to make their slaves Christians? 
The canting, busy, mischief-making English, whose African associa- 
tion was for ever at work lo stir up a ruinous Strife in a prosperous 

and rival country, might pretend to ho better and more philanthropic 

than their transatlantic offspring ; but let soine newly-invented process 
he si;t in action that should cause tin; horse, the OS, and the ass of 
Briton to turn and reason with his master for making him toil, what 
would the fierce Islanders say (hen? — Would they no! rise and (ear 
lo atoms the agents in such a plot?" 



96 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OV 

Such were the reasonings, it is said, upon which many among the 
influential part of the slave-holding population of the United States 
acted, when it was tacitly resolved amongst them not to interfere when- 
ever individual vengeance should be taken upon those suspected of 
holding religious intercourse with slaves, let that vengeance go what 
lengths it might. 

The knowledge and belief that such a resolution had been secretly 
entered into by many possessing great power and influence was gra- 
dually gaining ground, producing consequences such as might easily 
have been predicted, and such in fact as it was intended they should 
produce. 

The appetite for this species of chartered vengeance very naturally 
increased by what it fed on, and very many petty planters besides 
Mr. Giles Hogstown, who had now fixed himself on Edward Bligh, 
felt as much gratification in getting scent of a missionary, or tracking 
a Christian traveller, as a bloodhound shows when he comes upon the 
trace of his prey. 

Though by no means fully aware of the extent to which this system 
of licensed outrage was carried, Edward knew enough of it to feel 
certain that this man's questions boded him no good ; but as in this 
case no present danger threatened either Lucy or any of his sable flock, 
his spirit rose to meet and baffle it, and to Hogstown's allusion 
to "saints" he replied with a smile, and looking him full in the 
face — 

" But where are the young saints to come from, sir ? I don't fancy 
we can expect any more saints on earth jest at present." 

" You hail from Kentucky, my lad, don't you?" replied Hogstown, 
twisting the quid in his mouth, and at the same time squirting forth its 
juice with an expressive jerk. 

"Yes, sir," replied Edward, preserving his steady unembarrassed 
air; "and a very fine country it is. — Do you happen to know 
it, sir?" 

" I know enough of it to say that no whey-faced canting vagabonds 
had ought to come therefrom. They most generally rises very un- 
accountable fine fellows there, who are most times up to a thing or two ; 
but it's likely enough that, with all their gouging and fun, they may 
learn something new if they send out some strolling scouts Natchez 
way. We arn't to be beat, nor scared, nor bamboozled by any that 
stands between earth and heaven, — mind that, my lad." 

So saying, he turned down a street at the corner of which they were 
standing, leaving Edward considerably at a loss to comprehend the 
meaning of his parting address. 

He suspected indeed that he was threatened, but he knew not with 
what ; and more determined than ever to separate himself from Lucy, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 97 

he crossed the market to a store that exhibited in its window ready- 
made caps, hats, and sundry garments for children. 

" Do you happen to want a very handy young woman for needle- 
work?" said he as he entered, and almost before he had seen the face 
of the person he addressed. 

This was an extremely beautiful young woman who stood behind 
the counter, and whose delicate complexion had a slight shade of that 
peculiar tinge which marks the quadroon in Louisiana, but which would 
have gained her in Europe the reputation of being the most beautiful 
brunette in the world. 

" Yes, sir, we do," was the reply ; " we want several." 

Edward's blood mounted to his temples as he looked at her. Beau- 
tiful, graceful, elegant, and gentle as she was, he dared not place his 
sister near her. Let her moral character be what it might, disgrace 
must of necessity be coupled with her name. Her remarkable beauty 
made it certain that she must be addressed with the most brutal and 
unchecked licentiousness by every dissolute fellow that approached her. 
From this no possible degree of purity and discretion could secure her, 
for she was of the race whom all men are permitted to insult. Lucy's 
present situation, perilous as it might soon become, was still infinitely 
better than any protection this unfortunate being could bestow ; and 
Edward stood silent and embarrassed before her, at a loss how to leave 
the shop after such an opening without betraying the reason for it. 

But the poor quadroon understood him without his entering into any 
explanation. 

" Is the young lady a relation of yours, sir?" said she. 

" She is my sister." 

" Then I think, sir, you had better inquire at Mrs. Shepherd's, 
three doors below. She has a great deal of work, and there would be 
no objection to your sister's being with her." 

A bright blush mounted to her eyes as she spoke ; but she smiled as 
she returned his parting bow. It was that soft, melancholy smile, 
however, which seems peculiar to her race, and it brought tears into 
Edward's eyes. 

He followed her instructions, and entering the shop of Mrs. Shepherd, 
repeated his inquiry. 

" A handy young woman? — why yes, maybe I do," was the satis- 
factory reply, but uttered by lips which nature had denied the power 
to smile, and in a voice that was in harsh discordance with the sweet 
tones of the quadroon. 

Edward felt all this strongly enough, poor fellow ; but it was no time 
to dwell on smiles or silver sounds; and feeling this more strongly still, 
he civilly proceeded to state the merits and qualifications of his sister. 



98 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

" Is she a beauty, young man?" gruffly inquired the grim high 
priestess of this temple of fashion, fixing her rude eyes on Edward's 
handsome features. " If she favours you, I don't think she'll suit 
me ; I don't approve of beauties." 

Again Edward's blood mounted to his forehead, but with a feeling 
widely different from that which last propelled it there. He conquered 
the rebellion, however, that was rising at his heart, and replied meekly, 

" My sister, madam, is a very quiet, modest-looking young woman, 
and would, I am sure, endeavour in all ways to give you satisfaction." 

" It's difficult to know. — Gals are unaccountable plagues. — What 
would she ask, too, over and above her board and lodging?" 

" She would be happy to come to you for a trial, madam, on very 
reasonable terms, — just enough to enable her to dress with propriety." 

" Well, I expect I may try her. — Where does she bide?" 

11 She has been living with me in the country, and she is there still." 

" Living with you? — Has she no parents? How am I to know that 
she is not your miss ?" 

This was too much, and Edward turned to leave the store. But 
probably there was something in the ad libitum nature of the arrange- 
ment proposed agreeable to the pecuniary taste of Mrs. Shepherd, for 
she prevented his departure by saying sharply — 

" You'd better stop, young man; — you may go farther and fare 
worse. If you're a brother, and a good brother, you won't think the 
worse of the place because I am careful who I takes into it." 

There was truth in this, though the manner of it was detestable; so 
once more subduing his feelings, he turned back and said calmly, 

" I am indeed a brother, madam, and one that would die rather than 
expose my sister to danger of any kind ; but I have not been used to 
hear her suspected ; and " 

" Well, well, no harm's done ; I 'm willing to give your sister a 
trial. — What's her name?" 

" Bligh,— Miss Lucy Bligh." 

" And when is she to come? She isn't to stump it, I suppose? — 
have you any waggons your way?" 

" Oh yes; there will no difficulty about that. I can bring her to 
you next market-day, if that will suit you?" 

" Next market-day? — why that's four days, and we stifled with 
work here. However, the waggons will accommodate ^then maybe, 
and she will have to wash and stitch a spell, I expect, to fix herself. — 
So market-day let it be, — and that's all said." 

Edward took the hint and disappeared. He was comforted — cer- 
tainly he was greatly comforted at having thus succeeded in the object 
next his heart; but it was with a pang he could scarcely conquer that 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 99 

he thought of his meek, gentle Lucy, who through all her troubles 
had never yet received a harsh word from any human being, given up 
to the power and the temper of the woman he had left. 

The sight of Mr. Giles Hogstown, whom at this moment he saw on 
the opposite side of the market-place evidently watching him, went 
farther perhaps to reconcile him to the deed he had done than anything 
else he could have encountered. Once more he felt certain he was 
right, and immediately turned all his thoughts to the little details ne- 
cessary to prepare Lucy for the change in her position. 

Mrs. Shepherd's hint about *' stitching and fixing" was not lost on 
the thoughtful brother, and he immediately determined to dedicate the 
money he had brought with him to the purchase of a gown, et ccetera, 
for his Lucy. 

He remembered of old that in the days of his Lexington splendour 
the finest shops were ever accounted the dearest ; he therefore pru- 
dently determined to quit the gayer part of the town and to penetrate 
into the humbler quarter, where he might hope to find bargains that 
should suit his purse. 

Fate seemed to favour him. A low-browed door admitted him to 
a well-filled little store, from among the treasures of which he easily 
selected what he flattered himself would answer the purpose re- 
quired. 

While making his purchases, be observed that the magazine he had 
selected for them was sufficiently humble to receive negro customers, 
for more than one entered for a cent's worth of snuff or tobacco while 
he was there. Perceiving that the woman of the shop condescended 
also to gossip with them as she took their money, he ventured to join 
the conversation by asking if they could tell him whether a handsome 
young negro girl called Phebe had been sold at Natchez within the last 
few days? 

The question was one which immediately commanded the attention 
of his auditors. 

"Phebe?" said one. "No, massa — no Phebe sold this week at 
market. I hab the cat cause I bede see 'em all done sold. No Phebe 
'mongst 'em, massa." 

" Handsome?" cried another ; " der hab not bin a handsome nig- 
ger gal sold in Natchez market since my Sylvia. No, massa, no hand- 
some gal this week." 

This latter testimony might have had but little weight without the 
former ; but both together, joined with the absence of everything re- 
sembling an advertisement of her on the walls of the market-house, 
convinced him that the poor girl had not been sold. 

Edward now turned his thoughts homeward ; but, despite his nearly 
exhausted purse, he entered a baker's store to purchase a roll before 



100 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

he set off towards the forest. Though pressed by hunger at the mo- 
ment he did so, he would not eat the morsel then, for he remembered 
a clear brook that he should pass in his way, beside which he could rest 
himself, quench his ardent thirst, and, in short, double the luxury of 
his banquet. 

As he quitted the baker's store, he was somewhat startled to meet 
again the deep-set eye of Hogstown glaring at him from the door of a 
whisky-store opposite. He remembered, however, that a few days 
would see his sister in safety; and solaced by this conviction, he walked 
out of the town little mindful whether Mr. Giles Hogstown watched 
him or not. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

"Poor Lucy! how will she bear it?" was an exclamation that 
escaped Edward Bligh's lips almost as soon as he had fairly quitted the 
busy suburbs of Natchez, and found himself alone in the wide forest 
that surrounds it. 

It was a question which had never occurred to him as long as the 
separation was doubtful ; but now, now that it was all fixed and set- 
tled, — now that he had spent almost their last dollar in obtaining a 
dress in which to send her from him, the fear that he should have 
to witness very bitter sorrow on her part, weighed heavily on his 
spirits, and his pace slackened and his step moved languidly as he 
thought of it. 

He had quite forgotten his little loaf, and the repose he had pro- 
mised himself to take while he ate it, when he at length reached the 
pretty spot he had fixed upon for the purpose. The sight of it re- 
minded him both of his need of refreshment, and of the means of 
taking it, which were within his reach ; and though no longer feeling 
as light-hearted as when he projected the repast, he sat down on a 
bright white stone beside the little brook as he intended, and having 
first refreshed himself by a copious draught of its fresh and delicious 
water, he prepared to eat his loaf, when he was startled by the appari- 
tion of a negro head looking earnestly at him from a thick bush of 
cane-brake on the other side of the stream. 

At first, the glance that regarded him seemed a furtive one, and 
some caution was taken to conceal the person from whom it came ; but 
in the next moment a tail young negro burst from the covert, and 
springing by a strong effort across the brook, fell trembling and ex- 
hausted at Edward's feet. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON VVHITLAW. 101 

He was dreadfully emaciated, and appeared so reduced in strength, 
that when Edward stretched out his hand and attempted to raise him, 
the poor fellow, though he evidently endeavoured to second the effort, 
was utterly unable to do so, and remained prostrate and panting on the 
earth. 

Edward dipped his hand in the running water and sprinkled him 
freely with it. The negro opened his eyes, which had closed heavily 
as he fell, and looking up in the face that was gazing on him with an 
expression of tender pity, but with no symptom of recognition, he ex- 
claimed, 

" Oh, Master Edward ! do you not know me?" 

Famine and fatigue had changed the voice less than the features, for 
he was now known in an instant. 

" Caesar ! my poor Caesar !" cried Edward, wringing his attenuated 
hand, "what can have happened to bring you to this miserable con- 
dition?" 

"Iaraa runaway slave, Master Edward," replied the young man, 
shuddering as he spoke the fearful words, " and I have eaten nothing 
but wild berries for the last five days." 

The first impulse was naturally to give him the bread that lay on the 
moss at his side. This was done most cautiously and tenderly by Ed- 
ward, who fed him with little morsels dipped in the stream as carefully 
as a mother would have ministered to her babe. But, this first and 
most imperious call answered, the next movement was that of terror 
at the dreadful risk of discovery that both were exposed to. The sun 
was not yet set, and within a quarter of a mile of the spot w 7 here they 
stood was the dwelling of a hunter well known to Edward, whose for- 
tune would be made at a single stroke could he only see and give notice 
at Natchez of the vicinity of the poor exhausted Caesar. 

For the present, nothing better could be divised by either of them, 
than for the negro to creep on his belly beneath the almost impervious 
covert of the bushes at a hundred yards' distance from the path. His 
renovated strength sufficed for this, and there Edward left him, assur- 
ing him that he might go to sleep in safety, as the spot w T as too near a 
human habitation to leave any fear of wolves, and promising to return 
at midnight with the best nourishment he could procure, that his ac- 
tivity might be sufficiently restored to enable him to search a hiding- 
place of greater safety. 

Edward Bligh pursued his way home in a state of the most painful 
anxiety. During the few moment's conversation they held together, 
he had learned from Caesar that he was one of the slaves escaped from 
Oglevie's factory ; and the suspicion which had glanced across his mind 
when he heard of the tracts, that the delinquent might possibly be his 
own valued and faithful Caesar, was thus unhappily confirmed, 



02 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Among many pressing causes of uneasiness, the difficulty of con- 
cealing this unfortunate young man, and saying him from the fate that 
inevitably awaited him if discovered, now became the most urgent; 
but weary and wayworn, he reached his home before his invention 
had suggested anything that promised even probable success. 

He found Lucy anxiously awaiting him, and a supper of such com- 
forlable aspect provided, that his first idea was that he would return 
immediately to convey it to his starving protege. 

A young farmer who passed whistling before the door at this mo- 
ment reminded him, however, that the hour of darkness and silence 
was not yet come ; so selting apart, to the great surprise of the won- 
dering Lucy, considerably more than half the tempting sleaksshehad 
provided, he sat down beside her to partake the remainder. 

How much, how very much he had to tell her ! — and where should 
he begin ? The condition of poor Caesar was the thing most freshly 
impressed upon his memory, and examining cautiously on all sides 
that none were near enough to overhear him, he related it to her 
exactly as it had become known to him. 

She was greatly agitated. Caesar had been valued by the whole fa- 
mily for his many excellent qualities ; but Lucy loved him for Phebe's 
sake still more than for his own ; and when she remembered the tender 
and innocent affection which had existed between them from early 
childhood, and the agony the poor girl would feel when she learned 
his situation, she wept bitterly. 

It was immediately agreed between the brother and sister, that he 
should every night be supplied with the means of sustenance by them. 
This part of the arrangement was easy enough ; but where should they 
conceal him ? How could they hope to finds means of eluding the 
search which would most assuredly be made for him, and in which 
every white inhabitant of the country except themselves would join 
heart and hand? 

Some moments of silent meditation followed the fair statement of 
these very difficult questions by Edward, and then Lucy broke the si- 
lence by saying, 

" Edward ! a thought has come into my head that may be worth 
nothing ; yet the case seems so desperate, that I had better tell you 
what it is, in case by possibility you may turn it to account. You set 
off this morning, dear brother, in the hope of doing some important 
business by means of the town gossip, while I, staying at home, had a 
huge packet of country gossip brought me, quite unsought on my part, 
I assure you, but from which I think it is just possible we may extract 
something profitable to our poor Caesar." 

" Indeed !— That is the last thing I should expect, Lucy, from any 
gossip within reach of Fox's clearing. Fox's wife's brother owns a 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 103 

slave ; and the instant the abomination comes within the limits of a 
man's kindred, if it be only to a cousin's cousin, you are sure to hear 
them all join the hoop and cry after every runaway negro mentioned 
in their presence, as if the property of the whole family were at stake. 
— But tell me what you have heard." 

"Nothing certainly to disprove the truth of your observation. I 
should be sorry to trust the safety of Caesar to the tender mercies of 
Mrs. Fox, who seldom misses an opportunity of offering her testimony 
to the ' unaccountable ignorance of them stupid niggers what genteel 
people is forced to have wait upon 'em.' But my gossip did not come 
from her : it was that decent body Mrs. Martin, little Rosa's mother, 
who gave me the information that I wish to turn to Caesar's profit. 
She brought the child to school this morning, that she might explain 
something about the work she was about ; and of course I made her 
sit down, and so forth. She asked me, by way of making conversa- 
tion, I suppose, if I knew the German family called Steinmark, who 
own the large farm known by the name of Reichland. I told her I 
had heard them named as very rich people, but knew nothing more 
about them. ' My !' she exclaimed, ' I wonder you never heard tell 
of their beautiful daughter ! — why, she's the talk of the country, but 
so proud that she won't deign to speak a word to anybody. The bro- 
thers, at least the miller, is a very clever free-spoken man, and rich 
too, they do say, unaccountable : and now they are all mad with joy 
because the eldest son is corned back from Philadelphy richer than all 
the rest. But the thing I was going to speak of was, the unaccountable 
wonder that, with all the dollars that's talked of among 'em, there is 
not one of the whole kit what owns a slave !' — This, Edward, as nearly 
as 1 can recollect it, was Mrs. Martin's harangue; and it created a feeling 
of satisfaction at knowing that there was at least one household near 
us composed of right-thinking Christians. Bo you think it possible 
that you could introduce yourself to this family, lead them to talk of 
the besetting sin of the beautiful country in which they have fixed them- 
selves, and, if encouraged by their sentiments and manner of speaking, 
trust them at once with poor Caesar's secret, and implore their help to 
conceal him? Do you think it would be possible to do this ?" 

"Lucy, I do," was Edward's prompt reply; and after meditating a 
moment he added, — " It appears to me almost certain that a wealthy 
family in Louisiana, carrying on extensive concerns without slaves, 
must do so upon principle ; and if this be the case, they will help us. 
— Do not doubt it, love ! — let us thank Heaven for this most timely 
accident!" 

Lucy did thank Heaven ; and so delighted did she feel at the idea of 
Caesar's probable escape, and the exceeding happiness she should con- 
vey to Phebe by telling her that he was safe and well, that she almost 



104 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

forgot how completely the fate of the unfortunate girl was still enve- 
loped in mystery. Her first words on seeing Edward had been to ask 
if Phebe were sold, and his almost positive negative suggested the idea 
that she must be still near them. 

" My poor dear Phebe !" exclaimed the tender-hearted Lucy, who, 
though still fancy-free herself, appeared quite able to understand the 
effect of love on others ; "she did so dearly love him ! — I must see 
him, Edward, if only to tell Phebe thatl have done so. It is quite dark 
now — may we not go to him ?" 

There was one piece of intelligence which Edward had to commu- 
nicate that he had not yet touched upon, and it was of a nature which, 
though pregnant with satisfaction to himself, he almost feared to men- 
tion ; but Lucy must hear it, and that directly, or how would the 
" stitching and fixing" be accomplished? He thought that he should 
be less of a coward if Lucy's sweet face were concealed by darkness as 
she listened to him, and he therefore readily acceded to her offer of ac- 
companying him to the spot where he had left Caesar. 

He persuaded her, however, to wait for another hour or two, that 
no belated loiterer might be likely to cross their path ; and then, fur- 
nished with a small basket containing every comfort their scanty means 
could furnish, they set forth. 

The moon was now very nearly at the full, and gave them perhaps 
a clearer light than they desired ; but this trifling addition to a danger 
which at this hour they thought could not be great, occasioned them 
but little uneasiness. An exclamation from Lucy as they quitted their 
dark room, upon the glorious brightness that greeted them, was an- 
swered by her thoughtful brother with an observation that the deepest 
darkness would perhaps suit them better ; but after this they alluded 
to the danger no more, and perhaps almost unconsciously ''blessed 
the useful light" which rendered this walk so unlike many which they 
had taken during the last fortnight to Peggy's hut. 

One must have seen the effect of moonlight in a half-cleared forest- 
path in this southern climate, to conceive any idea of its beauty. The 
striking illustration of " ebon and ivory" that has been so beautifully 
applied to this species of light, is hardly strong enough to convey an 
idea of its strength and power there. The flood of silver that bathes 
every object where trees are not, and the solemn darkness that dwells 
unconquerable where they are, surpasses anything that more temperate 
latitudes can show. 

Lucy seemed inclined to bask in the moonshine, and chose the 
centre of the open glade by which their walk commenced, as if to 
enjoy its brilliance more fully ; but this suited not the tone of poor 
Edward's feelings, and drawing her arm within his, he led her gently 
into the shade. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 105 

M Dearest Lucy !" he said, " do you remember that I was once stern 
enough to say that it was your duty to obey me? And do you re- 
member, too, how sweetly you answered that you knew it, and would 
never cease to remember it?" 

" Well, Edward ! and suppose I do? Have you any very terrible 
proof of my sincerity to propose to me?" 

" I fear I have, my love ;— but you must not blame me, Lucy ; and 
do not, for God's sake, dearest, — do not increase the difficulties which 
surround us, by showing disinclination to adopt the measure I have 
decided on for you." 

The heart of the poor girl at once divined that he was about to pro- 
pose they should separate. 

"Edward! Edward!" she exclaimed, "think well before you 
decide upon leaving me; — think well whether I shall have strength to 
support the life I now lead without you." 

" What I have arranged for you is nothing like this, dearest Lucy; 
but, to speak to you at once with the frankness you so well deserve, 
I must say that our remaining together at this very critical moment 
would be fatal to the great object to which I have solemnly consecrated 
my existence. I cannot do what I ought to do while you are with me. 
But think not that I am therefore less exposed to danger. On the 
contrary, I am persuaded that did I feel myself perfectly a free agent, 
and had the power of moving from one quarter to another, I might 
live among these unhappy people for years, of which no week, no day 
should pass unmarked by the approach of some of them towards their 
God, while I might remain unchallenged and unknown even in the 
centre of New Orleans." 

" New Orleans! Are you going to New Orleans, Edward? — and 
at this season !" 

" Oh no, Lucy! I have no such idea, I assure you. On the con- 
trary, my intention is to remain at our present quarters, and to pursue 
the same occupation ; while you, at the distance of a few miles only, 
shall be safely pursuing an employment less fatiguing, I hope, but 
certainly more profitable, and which will afford you the power of 
meeting me every Sabbath morning at sunrise on the road from 
Natchez, when I will lead you home to breakfast, and we will pass the 
holy day in prayer and peace." 

"Ah! my poor Edward!" replied Lucy, weeping, "you have 
thought more of me than of yourself in this. How will your evenings 
pass without me V 

*' Delightfully, peacefully, fearlessly, Lucy; for I shall have done 
my duty. But you do not ask to what labour I have pledged my little 
girl? — Are you not anxious to know whether you are to be governess 
in the family of some magnificent Creole, with the task of imparting 



106 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

activity to all her offspring? or to superintend the agreeable establish- 
ment of a Natchez boarding-house?" 

" I do not much think," replied Lucy, almost recovering her smiles, 
"that you have pledged me to either one or the other. But tell me, 
cruel Edward ! what is it I shall have to occupy me when I can plan 
and plot for your comfort no longer ?" 

Edward then gave her a detailed account of the engagement he had 
entered into, confessed that the aspect of Mrs. Shepherd was not very 
inviting, but endeavoured to console himself and her by talking of the 
future, and dwelling upon a hope he had often before mentioned, that 
he might some day find means to take her with him to the coast of 
Liberia. 

Lucy answered only by a heavy sigh ; but she made no farther 
attempt at remonstrance, and listened with gratitude to the account he 
gave of his thoughtful purchases for her. 

By the time this theme was fully discussed, they had reached the 
spot where Edward had left the weary and exhausted negro. He had 
taken the bearings of the thicket which concealed him too accurately 
to feel any doubt about the place ; but the signals he gave of their ap- 
proach remained unanswered, nor could they penetrate sufficiently 
into the matted covert to enable them to decide whether the object of 
their search were concealed there or not. 

Caesar had made his entry into it much as a snake might have done 
— a mode of conveying the person which neither of his friends had yet 
acquired ; so that having walked around and into the thicket as nearly 
as possible, and used their voices fully as loud as it was safe to do, 
they began to fear either that he had been surprised and taken away, 
or that for some reason or other he had sought another place of con- 
cealment. 

For a moment after this fear was expressed by Edward, they both 
stood perfectly still as if meditating what course to pursue; and then in 
the perfect silence Lucy fancied that she distinguished a sound like the 
heavy breathing of one asleep. Her brother listened at her bidding, 
and soon became convinced that she was right ; but how to penetrate 
to the asylum the sleeper had chosen, or even to guess exactly where it 
was, he knew not. 

At length it was decided between them to cut a long stout branch 
from a tree, and by the aid of this to set to work on poor Caesar as it is 
usual to do when endeavouring to dislodge a rat from a hole. The ex- 
riment happily succeeded, and a gleam of moonlight that shot through 
a lucky aperture in the trees was caught, and reflected so vividly by 
Caesar's eyes as he slowly emerged from his lair, that an European 
might have been strangely startled at the effect produced. 

The next moment was one of rapture to poor Caesar. The sight of 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 107 

Lucy was an unexpected joy, and he testified his devotion to her rather 
like an Eastern than a Western slave, for he literally kissed the hem 
of her garment again and again, and, spite of the weakness of his 
famished state, wearied not of repeating — 

"Miss Lucy! Oh, blessed Miss Lucy ! Beautiful, blessed Miss 
Lucy!" 

Tears flowed plentifully from the eyes of both ; but Edward in- 
terfered to stop this excess of enervating feeling, for he knew that the 
poor fellow would have need of courage and energy to escape the perils 
that surrounded him. 

T!«e restorative contents of the basket were produced, and the gay 
enjoyment with which the poor negro despatched them was a painful 
contrast to the anxiety of his more thoughtful friends. 

Timidly and tenderly he inquired for Phebe ; and so needful did 
Edward think it to sustain, and not depress his spirits, that he only 
told him in return that she was the property of a neighbouring planter, 
and that they often saw her, without hinting at her recent disappear- 
ance, or at any of the peculiar miseries of her situation. 

After an hour passed in thus comforting the poor runaway, Edward 
and Lucy prepared to depart ; and as the thicket had proved a safe 
hiding-place, and contained, as Caesar assured them, a very soft bed 
of leaves to sleep on, they strongly recommended his patiently re- 
maining within it, promising that the following night should replenish 
the little store they left with him, and that the interval should be 
passed in endeavouring to learn what would be the safest course for 
him to pursue. Having seen him ensconced, they took their depar- 
ture ; and their homeward waik was beguiled by the discussion of 
various plans for becoming acquainted with the rich German family 
who employed no slaves. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Noth withstanding the many ingenious devices suggested and can- 
vassed that night, when the following morning came, Edward Bligh 
told his sister that he had determined upon using none of them, but 
intended simply to present himself to their wealthy neighbour, and, 
unless he saw something in his manner that was discouraging, to slate 
the case of Caesar at once, and ask his assistance in concealing him till 
the first heat of pursuit should be over. 

Edward set forth accordingly ; and the day being Sunday, Lucy con- 
sented to accompany him for a part of the way. The distance did not 



108 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

exceed three miles ; and rather than lose the pleasure of his company 
on the return, — a pleasure, as she said, that would soon become very 
rare, — she placed herself under a tree at no great distance, though per- 
fectly concealed, from the house, and there awaited his return. 

Edward boldly entered the premises, and requesting to see "the 
master," was ushered into the common sitting-room of the Steinmark 
family, which has been before described. 

Frederick Steinmark was, as usual, occupied at the upper endof the 
apartment with a book ; and, as usual too on this day of rest, his still 
beautiful wife was surrounded by her sons ; the circle being now aug- 
mented by Fritz, and a young friend and countryman, who had accom- 
panied him from Philadelphia. 

It was impossible to mistake the figure of the master. The high 
forehead, now nearly deserted by the light curls that formerly covered 
it — the slight contraction of the brow, which denoted at once age and 
thought, distinguished him sufficiently from the bright young faces 
which occupied the other end of the apartment, 

Edward approached him, and said — 

"Mr. Steinmark, I believe?" 

It must, I suppose, be allowed as a defect, or a weakness, or, at any 
rate, as a peculiarity in Frederick Steinmark, that his first impulse 
since his arrival in America upon the approach of any stranger, was to 
look towards such members of his family as were present with him, 
as a hint that they should come forward to relieve him from what indeed 
he never was heard to complain of, but which they all knew was the 
greatest annoyance that could beset him. 

Upon this occasion, as usual, the same summons that caused him to 
raise his eyes from his book, directed them towards his sons ; but this 
glance of warning given, he next turned his eyes upon his guest, and 
immediately laid aside the volume on a table near him. 

Hermann, with his usual promptitude, had already obeyed the look, 
and was by his side ; but Edward, who had perceived the joyous party 
from which he came, took courage for the sake of Caesar's secret, and, 
almost unconscious of Hermann's civil salutation, continued to address 
his father : 

" May I take the liberty, Mr. Steinmark, of begging to speak to you 
alone ?" 

Such a request would in general have fallen more heavily on the ear 
of Frederick Steinmark than the announcement of the visit of a wolf or 
hurricane; but, somewhat to Herman's surprise, he now rose with 
alacrity from his chair, and led the way to a small room on the oppo- 
site side of the entrance, followed by Edward. 

Could their historian do justice to the character of Frederick Stein- 
mark, or to the countenance of Edward Bligh, this deviation from the 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 103 

usual habits of the former would create no surprise, for never did fea- 
tures more speakingly proclaim gentleness, intelligence, and refinement 
than those of Edward. 

When the door of the little room was closed upon them, and they 
were both sealed, the young American once more raised his eyes 
to the face of his host; and if any doubt remained on his mind as to the 
security with which he might tell him all, that glance removed it. 

" When you know my business, sir," said Edward, " I think you 
will forgive the freedom I have taken, and am about to take/' 

" I am quite sure of it, sir, let that freedom be what it may," replied 
the German. 

" You have a large estate here," resumed Edward, " and I am told 
that you own no slave. May I not believe that this is a proof of your 
condemning slavery?" 

" I would have it a proof to all men, that I abhor it from my soul," 
replied Frederick Steinmark with energy. 

M Thank God !" replied poor Edward fervently. " It is long since 
I have heard such words." 

" But why should they affect you so strongly, my young friend V 
demanded Steinmark. 

•' I will tell you, sir. If you abhor slavery, you must be touched 
with compassion for those who are its victims. One of these, a young 
man of my own age, and whom I have known familiarly from my 
birth, — one of the most guiltless, faithful, and affectionate of human 
beings, — is at this moment exposed to all the fearful danger that 
threatens a slave who has run from his master. The reasons of his 
doing so, I could explain much to his honour did I not fear to intrude 
on your kind patience. But I have no means whatever of concealing 
him : he is at present lying hid in the forest at a few miles' distance, and 
unless I can discover some shelter for him soon, I cannot hope that he will 
escape the pursuit which will, before it ceases, leave no thicket unex- 
plored." 

Steinmark listened with the most earnest attention ; the tale had 
for the present effectually cured his absence of mind. 

'■ If my premises can afford protection to the poor fellow, be very 
sure he shall have it. But may I, without your believing impertinent 
curiosity to be my motive, ask you, sir, how it happens that you, an 
American, an inhabitant of Louisiana, and, if I mistook you not, for- 
merly the owner of this young negro, should feel thus keenly the 
misery and the sin produced by this dreadful system ? I have been 
fifteen years in the country, and you are the first man from whom I 
have heard such sentiments." 

Edward hesitated a moment, not from any averseness to disclose his 
situation and the circumstances which led to it to the man before him, 



1 10 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

but rather from a fear of being beguiled by the interest expressed in 
the gentle eye that rested on him into becoming too tediously his own 
biographer. 

M Let me not distress you," said Steinmark hastily, remarking this 
hesitation, and believing from it that there were circumstances it might 
be painful to disclose. " I feel that my question was unauthorised. 
Let us rather revert." 

" Mr. Steinmark!" interrupted Edward with vivacity, "it is long, 
very long, since I have had the gratification of speaking to any one, 
except my young sister, to whom I could venture to express my feel- 
ings. If I now hesitate to answer you, it is because I fear that I may 
be led to speak of myself too much. Without this fear, it would in- 
deed be a comfort and consolation to tell you what I am, and why I 
am no better." 

" We seem, my young friend," returned Steinmark, with his own 
peculiar smile of irresistible sweetness, " to have more than one pecu- 
liarity in common. It is long, very long too, since I have encoun- 
tered a human being out of my own family to whom I could speak with 
freedom ; and now we have met, I should be sorry to think the ac- 
quaintance was likely to end." 

Edward held out his hand without speaking. At that moment, his 
voice could not have served to express his feelings so well as his action. 
He was fully understood, however; and these two very shy men, of 
differentages and of different nations, felt mutually that they were far 
advanced towards intimacy and friendship. 

" May I then come to you again?" said Edward cheerfully : " I 
cannot indulge myself now ; — I have left my sister waiting for me in 
the forest, and she will be most painfully anxious to hear the result 
of my petition for shelter in behalf of poor Caesar. Shall I tell her 
that you have promised to conceal him ?" 

" You may, indeed. But shall we not see your sister? — why not 
request her to join us V 

From this, however, Edward excused himself. He had as yet 
made no acquaintance with the kind Mary and her lovely daughter ; 
and the group of gay-looking young men he had caught sight of would, 
he thought, positively frighten Lucy. It was therefore settled that 
Edward should now take his leave, and return about midnight with 
Caesar, leaving to the morrow the renewal of the conversation which 
had so much interested both. 

" And your name, my friend?'' said Frederick Steinmark, holding 
out his hand. 

" Edward Bligh." 

"Farewell, then, till to-night. I will myself, and myself alone, 
await you at the gate through which you passed in coming to the house. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. Ill 

When you know us all, perhaps you may increase the number of your 
confidants." 

Edward took his leave, and carried with him such a degree of love, 
admiration, and reverence for the man he left, as only the young, un- 
worn, and pure of heart can feel upon an acquaintance of half-an- 
hour's standing. Nevertheless, not all the ripened wisdom of a Nestor 
could have enabled him to form a truer judgment. Such beings as 
Frederick Steinmark are not given lavishly to the world ; yet many 
may exist, perhaps, who do not bear so legible an index on their brow 
of the treasure within. Happy are those who, if destined to encounter 
one such in their passage through the world, meet it in the first glow 
of youthful feeling, when no misdoubtings of the delightful impulse, 
which renders up the heart, checks and chills the offering ! 

This happiness was Edward's, and he enjoyed it too with the keen- 
ness of one to whom happiness is rare ; yet there was a moisture in his 
eye as he turned from the threshold which might have been mistaken 
for the symbol of sorrow. The first half of the distance which divided 
him from Lucy was traversed in a sort of trance : new hopes, new 
affections, were awakened in his bosom, and all the heavy care that 
pressed upon him were for those few delicious moments totally for- 
gotten. Then came the idea of his sister, and the pleasure of relating 
his success : but with this came also the remembrance of their ap- 
proaching separation, and the melancholy thought that poor Lucy, 
toiling with her needle in Mrs. Shepherd's store at Natchez, would be as 
forlorn and miserable as if no such being as Frederick Steinmark 
existed in the world. 

His pace slackened as he thought of this; and his last steps were 
taken so languidly, and the expresion of his countenance as he ap- 
proached her was so sad, that as she rose to meet him she exclaimed, 

" Alas ! Edward, I see that you have failed ! God help him, poor 
fellow! — his fate in this world is sealed." 

This was uttered with such rapid vehemence, that the " No ! no ! 
no !" of Edward was unheeded, and the poor girl burst into tears. 

" Why, what a kill-joy face must mine be, Lucy, that the sight of 
me, even when I bring you the most happy tidings, should throw you 
into such complete despair ! I have not failed, Lucy : on the contrary, 
I have found a safe asylum for Caesar — if any can be safe, — and for 
myself a friend such as I never hoped to meet on earth. This Fre- 
derick Steinmark, Lucy, is a man that one might fancy was created to 
make a link between earth and heaven !" 

"Edward!" ejaculated his sister with a feeling almost like dismay 
at a burst of such unwonted vehemence from one so calm — at least on 
all themes but one; " how strongly wild that sounds, when speaking 
of a man whom you have known perhaps for forty minutes ! But, if 



112 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

he will save Caesar, I too will love and honour him, — though scarcely 
with such high-flown ecstasy as yours." 

Edward answered her reproof with a bright and happy smile — 

" You know not what you talk of, my dear child. You can have no 
idea of the being that lives yonder, enshrined in the forest, and hid as 
it should seem from all the world : his eye, his smile, his voice, his 
words — " 

As he thus vividly brought the image of his new acquaintance before 
his mind's eye, his memory suddenly recalled to him the looks, words, 
and actions he had witnessed the day before in Mr. Monroe Yandum- 
per's store. 

" God of the universe !" he exclaimed with awe, " inscrutable are 
thy ways! All, all have immortal souls ! — All in thine own image ! — 
Oh ! how defaced, deformed! — Can they be recognised? — Can we be- 
lieve them of the same race? — What is the tincture of the skin, com- 
pared to this deep-dyed deformity? — deep to the centre, to the inmost 
soul!" 

Lucy walked beside him, her arm locked in his; but she felt that 
these words were not addressed to her. It was not the first time that 
she had heard her brother break forth thus in soliloquy, as if his mind 
started aside from the theme on which they were conversing; and 
whenever this happened, a vague terror, lest sorrow might at last shake 
his noble understanding, shot through her heart. But the fear was as 
transitory as the cause of it, and left no trace of which she was con- 
scious on her mind, except perhaps a sort of quiet firmness that she 
cherished there, as a fund of strength in time of need, that might make 
stand against the rash enthusiasm that he often manifested. 

Having thus given vent, perhaps unconsciously, to the thoughts that 
were at work within him, Edward walked on in silence. Lucy had 
no courage to interrupt his meditation, but she sighed deeply. 

''Forgive me, dearest love!" he exclaimed, "for suffering my 
thoughts to wander from Steinmark and from you, to Natchez, and some 
of the vilest beings that inhabit it. Shall I tell you, Lucy, why it was 
that when I approached you laden with good news, I looked as if I 
were the bearer of all that was dismal ?" 

" I wish you would ; — I cannot understand it." 

" It was because I have found a blessing that you cannot share with 
me if you keep the engagement I have made for you at Natchez." 

"God bless you, dearest Edward! — but do not always let your 
thoughts and cares be fixed on me. I shall do very well ; and should 
I find it otherwise, you know we have already settled that I should 
return to you. Meanwhile, I trust that this good German who has so 
enchanted you will prove a useful friend to you as well as to Caesar." 

M Ay, Lucy, that's the point. Not for myself, however ; — I want 



JONATHAN JEFFE&SON WHlTLAW. 113 

no man's aid : — but you, Lucy; — might I not hope to gain his friend- 
ship and protection for you?" 

" In what way, Edward ?" ' 

" Nay, I hardly know. He seems to have many sons ; and if they 
all live at home, it would be unseemly to ask an abode for you with 
them." 

" Ask an abode for me, and with total strangers, Edward ? — Indeed 
I shall prefer your former plan. Your sour Mrs. Shepherd has no 
terrors for me. I sew with great rapidity ; and that will win me fa- 
vour in her sight. All this I can agree to readily : but I pray you, 
Edward, do not consign me to the charity of strangers." 

11 Strangers! — Steinmark is no stranger to me, Lucy." 

11 But, my dear Edward," she replied anxiously, " remember how 
much you have already asked of him. Though his ample premises 
and the respect always shown to wealth may enable him for a while 
to conceal Caesar, it is not the less certain that he runs great risk in 
doing so. Remember the outrages that have been committed at New 
Orleans against a native Creole, as wealthy probably as your new Ger- 
man friend, and for a less offensive act than concealing a runaway 
slave. Mr. Steinmark braves all this at your request ; — pray do not 
tax this new-made friendship any farther." 

" I feel that you are right — at least for the present, Lucy. But I 
wish that you had seen him : your accent, if not your words, would, 
I am sure, be different." 

Lucy would not dispute this point with him ; and their conversa- 
tion during the rest of the day turned chiefly upon the manner of life 
she would be likely to lead at Natchez. The visit to Reichland had 
produced effects exactly opposite on the minds of the brother and 
sister respecting the new scheme. Her dread of being dependant 
upon strangers reconciled her perfectly to that which a few hours be- 
fore she had shrunk from with distaste and fear ; while the bare pos- 
sibility that the protection of Steinmark might be obtained for her, 
made Edward deeply regret the measure, in the success of which he 
had so recently rejoiced. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

As soon as the night closed in, Edward set oil, accompanied by his 
sister, for a certain point in the thickest part of Hie forest between Fox's 
clearing and the plantation of Colonel Dart. It was here that for some 
weeks past, at the same dark hour of every Sabbath night, he had met 
such of the Negroes as had courage to creep from their beds and as- 

s 



114 LFFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

semble around him to pray, to listen to a portion of the Scriptures, 
and to such an exhortation from him as their peculiar circumstances 
called for. 

The eloquence of Edward Bligh was of no mean order. His co- 
pious reading had enriched his style ; and his strong feelings and en- 
thusiastic piety lent a fervour and a force to all he uttered that could 
not fail of producing great effect. The poor negroes who listened to 
him failed not to feel this effect, though unconscious of the cause that 
produced it. Their souls were roused from apathy, and in many 
cases elevated to hopes as pure, as well-founded, and as sublime as 
those which inspired the young preacher who addressed them. 

The first time they met to keep holy the Sabbath night, the only 
mode of obeying the commandment within their reach, Peggy, Phebe, 
one man, and three other women, formed the congregation; but the 
number had gradually increased, and on the preceding Sunday 
amounted to near fifty. Each individual approached the spot as nearly 
as might be alone, and no sound was heard, no human voice presumed 
to pierce the solemn stillness till the low clear tones of Edward were 
heard to pronounce " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy 
laden^ and I will give you rest." 

As it was considered essential to the safety of the meeting that the 
persons who composed it should arrive singly, Edward and Lucy did 
not join them till it was supposed they had all assembled; and it is 
difficult to conceive anything more wild and impressive than (he scene 
which had hitherto greeted them when they reached the ground. 

Sealed in dusky groups, sometimes but dimly visible, still as the so- 
lid earth on which they reposed, and silent as the stars that gleamed 
above them, the humble people wailed to hear the word of God. 

A less exalted spirit than that of Edward Bligh might have been 
warmed into enthusiasm by this spectacle ; and he never took his 
place amongst, them without silently renewing the vow he had made 
to Heaven that no earlhly consideration should ever induce him to 
abandon the attempt of leading these suffering spirits to seek for con- 
solation before the throne of God. 

On the night which followed Edward's visit to Rcichland, he and 
his sisler reached the ground a little earlier than usual, that no lime 
should be lost in waiting for them. They knew how impatiently 
Caesar must be expecting them, and were anxious that the delay neces- 
sarily occasioned by the meeting should be as short as possible. 

They were not therefore greatly surprised, on entering the small 
and closely-sheltered space selected for the meeting, to find it un- 
tenanted. They sat down in silence on the moss-covered root of an 
old plane-tree, and remained for about a quarter of an hour patiently 
waiting the arrival of their sable friends. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WI-IITLAW. 113 

Edward looked at that portion of the sky which the opening gave to 
his view, and perceived by the position of the stars that the usual hour 
of meeting was past. 

V Something must have happened at the plantation, Lucy, to pre- 
vent the people from coming to-night," said Edward in a whisper. 

" Poor Phebe ! this then accounts for her absence," replied Lucy 
in the same still tone. " But we must wait no longer, Edward, or you 
may be too late for your appointment with Mr. Steinmark." 

Edward rose without answering, and taking the arm of his sister, 
was about to traverse the opening in the direction of Ceesar's retreat, 
when the moonlight made distinctly visible the diminutive and decrepit 
figure of old Juno, who at that moment issued from behind a palmetto 
that grew beside their path. 

" The favour of the Most High shield and protect you, blessed chiU 
dren!" she said, as they approached. " Marvel not that your poor 
people are not here to receive the balm you bring them. It is at 
Juno's bidding that they are absent ; and you will not believe that it 
was for nothing she forbad those who hunger and thirst to come where 
only they could find the nourishment they lack." 

" Wherefore, then, Juno, have you prevented their coming?" said 
Edward. 

"Shall I tell you now ?" said the old woman. " See," she conti- 
nued, pointing with her bamboo towards the heavens, " it is late, and 
my tale may wax long : — must I indeed tell you all now ?" 

'•No, no," said Lucy eagerly. "Juno, be here to-morrow 
night." 

" Not so, sweet one," replied the old woman mournfully. 

" The night after, then?" 

" Not so," she repeated, in the same accents. 

" On Wednesday, then?" 

Juno shook her head, saying — 

" When you may see Juno safely, you shall see her, chosen of 
Heaven ! But you must be patient. It grows late," she continued, 
looking again towards the sky; " do not force me to remain longer 
with you now." 

"No, no," said Edward hastily, and drawing his sister onward; 
" we will not stay to hear you now% Juno : — another lime. Good 
night!" 

" The blessings of the suffering wrap you round like incense, and 
hide you from every wicked eye !" said the aged woman, stepping out 
of their way, and dropping on her knees beside the path. She then 
raised her clasped hands to heaven, and her lips moved in prayer. 

" One word, one single word, dearest Edward !" said Lucy eager- 

8 * 



116 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

ly ; and withdrawing her arm from his, she stepped back to the old 
woman, and laying her hand upon her shoulder, uttered the name of 
" Phebe !" but without adding a word to it. 

" Safe !" was the equally laconic reply ; and Lucy darted after her 
brother, repealing the word in an accent of the most heartfelt joy. 

"Alas! my love," said Edward gravely, " do you really place 
any confidence in the words of that poor maniac ?" 

" And you still will have it, Edward, that Juno is not in her right 
senses? How strange that seems to me." 

" My doubts of her sanity cannot seem more strange to you, Lucy, 
than your belief in it does to me." 

" And what are the grounds, Edward, upon which you found the 
idea that she has lost her reason? Surely, not because she is old, and 
speaks in language that shows more instruction than can be met with 
in those around her? — And yet, if it be not on these grounds, I see 
not any other for the suspicion." 

" Is it possible, Lucy, that you do not perceive her wild enthu- 
siasm ? " 

" I perceive her enthusiasm," replied Lucy gravely; then added 
with a sigh, "But why should we call it wild, Edward? " 

" Because it evidently betrays her into excess, not of faith — that is 
impossible ! — but into unreasonable excess of fervour in the expression 
of it." 

A painful feeling oppressed the heart of Lucy as she listened to 
him. She had conversed much and often with old Juno ; but, in 
her estimation, enthusiasm often took a shade of greater wildness 
than in her. She drove the idea from her with an effort, and re- 
plied — 

"You have no faith, then, in that delightful word pronounced so 
confidently? You do not believe that Phebe is in safety ? " 

"I confess, Lucy, that Juno's saying it goes not for much with me. 
— It may be true, or it may not. It may be true in some mystical 
sense of her own, in explaining which she might keep the word of 
promise to the ear, and break it to the sense. I am greatly grieved 
that this poor crazy soul should have such influence among our peo- 
ple as to prevent their meeting us." 

Lucy feared to push the discussion farther ; there was a vexed tone 
in her brother's voice very unusual with him, and she began talking of 
Caesar, and of the probable security of the asylum promised him. 

Earnestly and cheerfully he entered on this theme, assuring her 
that he conceived the situation more secure than any other could 
possibly be, as from the circumstance of Mr. Steicmark's having no 
negroes in his employ, there could be no pretence to search among 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 11T 

his labourers ; a process which was often the means of betraying 
an unfortunate wretch into the savage hands from which he had 
escaped. 

On arriving at Caesar's lair, they found the poor fellow eagerly look- 
ing out for them. His body indeed was completely concealed ; but 
his black head was protruded beyond the bush, and was most distinctly 
visiblei n the moonlight. 

Lucy chid him for this imprudence ; but Caesar seemed too happy 
to listen to her, and crawling briskly from his hiding-place, he ac- 
tually began to gambol round them in the very ecstasy of joy at 
their return. 

There was, however, no time to be lost — not even sufficient to ex- 
plain the success of their exertions to the gay object of them. "Follow 
me, Caesar," said Edward hastily; "we must be quick, or the friend 
that wails for us may give us up and be off his post." 

This hint was abundantly sufficient ; there was no farther need to 
urge Caesar onward, and he set off with all the recovered power of his 
active limbs. 

" Do we walk too fast for you, Lucy?" said Edward, pausing for 
a moment. 

" You can take a shorter cut," she replied, "than that which leads 
by our door. Fear not for me, dear Edward ; even without this 
glorious moon I should not fear to find my way alone. Adieu, good 
Caesar ! We shall meet again ; and now go on with all the speed you 
can." 

So saying, she dropped quietly behind them, and in a few minutes 
they were out of sight. 

Another moonlit mile, traversed without encountering a single living 
object, unless the ceaseless note of the wakeful bull-frog which ac- 
companied her the whole way, be considered as giving evidence of an 
exception, brought Lucy in safety to her dwelling ; but she was too 
anxious to hear that Caesar was in safety also, to permit her going to 
bed till Edward returned. She had not long, however, to wait for him. 
Frederick Steinmark, faithful to his word, was found at the appointed 
spot. A cordial shake of the hand being exchanged between him and 
Edward, and a promise asked and given that he would speedily return 
toReichland, they parted. Steinmark led Caesar to a luxurious bed of 
straw and a substantial supper in a loft used only for the stowage o f 
spare planks; and Edward returned to his sister, bidding her sleep as 
"doubtless and secure" as he was quite sure the object of her anxi- 
ety was about to do , 



118 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The lean and withered Juno, on leaving the hut of Peggy with 
young Whitlaw, continued her strange hobbling pace till she reached 
the running stream at the back of it. There she stopped and awaited 
him ; for although he could easily have passed with one step the space 
which she painfully conquered by three, he lagged behind her. The 
effects this old woman and her grimaces produced on him were, in 
truth, complicated and contradictory in the extreme. He loathed her 
age and ugliness; he scorned her helpless, slavish poverty ; he hated 
her assumption of licence, and even power, above her fellows ; but 
stronger than all was, nevertheless, the sentiment which made him 
shrink from her mockings and mysteries, and yet bend and servilely 
crawl before them. 

Juno pretty well knew that "such and so great" was her power; 
and many a good time and oft had the wily old woman indulged her 
abhorrence and revenge towards him and his occupation, by playing 
upon the terrors which ever lie crouching in the mind of a bad man, 
ready to torment him whenever some intluence from without can be 
made to rouse and set the imps in action. 

A metaphysician might have understood all this wonderfully well, 
and yet have been puzzled to work the machinery of such a mind as 
skilfully as Juno did. In truth, she knew to a nicety how far she 
might carry her tricks with every individual with whom she had to 
deal ; and if all who undertook to rule their fellows studied the ins 
and outs of human feelings as patiently as old Juno, power as gigan- 
tic as Napoleon's might perhaps be seen to sweep over the earth oftener 
than once in half a dozen centuries. 

The history of this whimsical being, half saint, half sorceress as 
she was, may be given in few words. She was born in the family of 
a French Creole, the mistress of which chose her out of a number of 
new-born blackies submitted to her inspection, much as a young 
lady might select a kitten from among a litter for her own particular 
amusement. 

The hateful position which gave Madame Briot the power of doing 
this was not of her own seeking, nor its consequences her own choice ; 
but the steady, gentle kindness with which the helpless being she had 
thus drawn near her, was fostered as long as she lived, was indeed 
all her own. It was, however, with more amiability of feeling than 
correctness of judgment that the little negress was permitted not only 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON VVHITLAW. 110 

to be in attendance during all the lessons received by Madame Briot's 
children, but to read the books they read, and to emulate their pro- 
gress in every branch of education through which while teachers could 
be prevailed upon to lead her. The dancing and music masters luckily 
bolh declared that they could by no means consent to such unwon(ed 
degradation; and thus Juno escaped the danger of becoming "elegantly 
accomplished." But even so, the hours devoted to the fine arts by 
her young mistresses were not passed without danger by her? for she 
spent them wholly in reading, and that reading was of the miscel- 
laneous kind furnished by a New Orleans circulating library. 

The yellow-fever carried off her kind-hearted but thoughtless 
patroness just as Juno reached the age of sixteen. M. Briot having 
European connexions, immediately decided upon placing his young 
family under their care. His New Orleans establishment w T as ac- 
cordingly broken up, and his slaves sold. 

Juno next became the property of an English settler; and thence 
the misery of her long and suffering life began. This man, struck by 
her unusual acquirements, amused himself by making her his com- 
panion and his mistress. He conversed with her as with a being of 
intellectual faculties equal to his own; furnished her with all the 
most stirring poetry of his country, for the gratification of seeing how 
it would work on her wild imagination ; and having thus given her a 
glimpse of happiness not easily conceived by beings under ordinary 
circumstances, he too departed for Europe, taking with him a little 
yellow girl of eighteen months old, on whom he determined to bestow 
an education which should atone by its expense for the cruelty he 
considered himself obliged to practise by abandoning her mother. In 
a paroxysm of sentimentalgenerosity, he determined, however, not 
to sell, but to give Juno to a friend he left behind him. 

The unfortunate was not the less a slave for the manner of the 
transfer ; and when she recovered from the frenzy that fell upon her 
on seeing her child borne away in the arms of its father, she found her- 
self again installed as the mistress of a white man. 

To him she bore many children ; but her apathetic indifference to 
them and their father, though only manifested by an external tran- 
quillity of demeanour alike undisturbed by love or hate, was in strange 
contrast to the wild fervour of her first affections. 

After ten years of cohabitation, this man died, leaving her and her 
eight children still slaves. His executors sold them all to the highest 
bidders ; and it was said that Juno never inquired to whose hands fate 
had consigned her offspring. For the third time, she herself became 
the favourite of her owner, and again bore children ; but she performed 
this task, as she did all others assigned her, much more like a well- 
regulated machine than a human being, never giving any outward in- 



120 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

dication whatever of either will, wish, or affections, On the marriage 
of this man, she was again sold; and having the good fortune to be 
now purchased by a widow lady, who, though a slave-holder, was 
nevertheless a very charitable and well-disposed Christian, the un- 
happy woman seemed in some degree to awake from the unnatural 
state of torpidity into which the detested degradation of the last fifteen 
years of her existence had plunged her. With this mistress she re- 
mained above twenty years, during which time her manner of life was 
irreproachable ; and she so evidently possessed the good lady's esteem, 
that everybody who knew the parties considered it as certain, that 
when the old lady died, she would leave Juno the legacy of her free- 
dom. 

Poor Juno thought so too; and in the deep silence of her unopened 
heart she had resolved to what use that freedom should be turned. 
During the years which succeeded the departure of her first child for 
England, this miserable but favoured slave contrived to learn from lime 
to lime, from some who still maintained a correspondence with the 
one only object of her idolatry, that her child was still alive, and still 
fondly cherished by its father; then, that she had married an English- 
man of good fortune; and then, that she had died, leaving one little 
girl. 

The tumult of hidden emotion into which these different tidings 
threw the forgotten mother need not be traced here. With care and 
pains that defeated every difficulty, she contrived to hear of the welfare 
of this grandchild, on whom her heart continued to fix all its burning 
fondness. She heard that the girl was beautiful, beyond even the far- 
famed beauty of the fair race among whom she dwelt; and the fancy 
of the poor ncgress sketched her image, and then clung to it as to an 
idol. 

The liberality of those with whom Juno had lived had made her 
mistress of some scores of dollars, and she had never expended a cent 
from the day on which her first child was taken from her. This sum, 
though not amounting to half that which the purchase of her freedom 
would require, was quite sufficient to pay a passage to England ; and 
to England she determined to go, there to behold her glorious grand- 
child, and there to die, as soon as her old mistress should have winged 
her way to heaven, and left her in possession of her freedom. 

Her old mistress died at length. Bureaus, caskets, writing-desks, 
and chests were all searched to find her will, but searched in vain ; and 
Juno, at the age of fifty, was still a slave. 

She was now again sold, and transferred to the estate known 
by the name of Paradise Plantation, near Natchez. This last fright- 
ful disappointment of the patient steadfast hope of many weary 
years for a time unsettled the wits of the unfortunate woman; but 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 121 

she had herself a strange consciousness that her mind was shaken, 
and took refuge in almost total silence, from the observations she 
dreaded to excite. She had now fallen into the hands of a planter who 
had bought her cheap, with many others of equally advanced age, 
merely for the drudgery of hoeing and weeding ; an employment 
which, by keeping her entirely in the open air, certainly contributed to 
her recovery ; and in about eighteen months after the death of her old 
mistress, Juno was so nearly well as to believe herself completely 
restored to mental health, and that without the overseers having ever 
suspected that it was a lunatic who performed her allotted tasks with 
so much more rapidity than any other in the gang. 

As soon as these daily tasks were over, it was her habit to steal 
forth into the forest that skirted the estate, where she found the great- 
est delight in recalling verses which she had committed to memory 
during the days of her happiness, and reciting them aloud. Even 
after her reason was in a great degree restored, this exercise continued 
to be her chief solace; and though she usually chose her time and 
place so well, that ■" her spirits," as she chose to call the small green 
parrots that abound in that region, were for the most part her only 
auditors, yet it sometimes happened that she was overheard uttering 
these very unaccountable sounds; and the idea which had now become 
universal in the neighbourhood, that old Juno held intercourse with 
supernatural beings, had its origin in this. 

Three times had she been sold with the other live stock without 
being removed from the estate, when Edward and Lucy Bligh esta- 
blished themselves in the forest near it. She was then rather more 
than seventy years old ; but it was easy to persuade ail such as were 
much younger, especially as most of those employed on Colonel Dart's 
property came there as strangers, that she was greatly more. She had 
quite ceased to think of freedom, or of England ; and all that remained 
of her early affections was the idea, yearly becoming more vague, that 
she was the ancestress of a very beautiful and glorious race, to whom 
she should be reunited after death, provided that the days she had still 
to pass on earth were spent in doing all the good she could to the 
virtuous, and thwarting and tormenting the wicked to the utmost of 
her power. 

The consciousness that this power was very considerable, was cer- 
tainly a source of no trifling pride and pleasure to old Juno ; but if she 
sometimes used it rather wantonly in vexing and confounding the spirits 
she deemed sinful, she never relaxed in her efforts to aid and sustain 
those she believed to be good. Phebe had not been on the estate a 
week before old Juno discovered the difference between her and her 
fellow-labourers, and a farther knowledge of her and her mother had 
revived a greater feeling of affection in the heart of the poor old woman 



122 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

than she had felt since her sufferings began. She had become also one 
of the earliest and most devoted of Edward's flock. Lucy's delicate 
beauty recalled the visionary form she had so long cherished as that 
of her descendants ; and her love and reverence to her, as well as to 
the cause in which she was engaged, was certainly somelimes ex- 
pressed with a degree of vehemence that justified Edward's doubts as 
to her sanity. 

Of Colonel Dart she had early conceived the very worst opinion ; 
and that, amongst others, for three especial reasons. First, he liked 
to watch the flogging of his slaves ; and nolice was regularly given him 
by the various overseers when anything of the kind ivorth looking at 
was going on. 

Secondly, he was the most suspicious man alive ; often dreaming of 
plots, and then acting much as if they had been discovered and proved. 
And thirdly, he never went to church. 

However wandering and wild the cause on which the wits of old 
Juno might occasionally have rambled, their acuteness was in no degree 
blunted by the exercise; for when she called them home again to the 
scenes passing around her, they not only penetrated to the motives and 
feelings of those among whom she lived, but enabled her to influence 
them in a manner that certainly made her one of the most important 
persons at Paradise Plantation. 

For Whitlaw she conceived an aversion if possible more vehement 
than that inspired by his patron : and it is certain that many, many- 
years had passed over her head since Juno experienced a degree of sa- 
tisfaction so lively as that produced by the discovery that he too, 
while treating with ribald scorn the prophecies and revelations on 
which hang the hopes of the world, trembled before the mumbled in- 
cantations of an old woman. 

She had hitherto used her power over him with little other object 
than his torment and her own amusement; but while idly lying about, 
as was her wont, now under the shelter of a ditch, and now of a farrow, 
she had heard more than one hint that Phebe was likely to become the 
" favourite" of the confidential clerk. Her first interference in the 
affair was to ascertain whether the poor girl herself was likely to be a 
willing parly to the arrangement; but when she had discovered the 
truth on that point, her determination was at once taken that Whitlaw 
should never obtain possession of her, and she set to work in her own 
peculiar manner to prevent it, with the most perfect confidence of 
success. 

It would be tedious to recount the glidings and the slidings, the 
creepings and the crawlings, the unseen exits and the unsuspected en- 
trances, by which Juno learned all she wanted to know, and by aid of 
which she appeared wherever she wanted to be found : the effect of 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 123 

her agency may be easily traced without following all the intricacies 
of the machinery she employed. 

Having given this sketch of the origin of Juno and her diablerie, 
we may henceforward venture to describe her acts, without being sus- 
pected of any intention to mystify the reader. 

On reaching the little brook behind Peggy's hut, the old woman 
stopped short, drawing figures in the air between her and it with her 
bamboo, which served her alternately as a crutch to sustain her failing 
strength on earth, and a wand with which to exercise power over the 
spirits of the air. 

As Whitlaw with uncertain and reluctant steps approached her, his 
eyes were fixed on this instrument, and something like a smile of con- 
tempt curled his lip. The old woman saw it, and, as was usual with 
her upon all occasions when she wished to be particularly cabalistic 
and impressive, she addressed him in doggrel rhyme. 

" Of human weakness, and of strength divine, 
A symbol see in this charm'd rod of mine ! 
With this I stay my feeble steps on earth, 
With this I give to airy spirits birth. 
Beware ! — lest in its twofold use you see 
Aught that should make you scorn my power or me." 

These words were accompanied with some of Juno's most effective 
grimaces. She opened wide her large prominent eyes, and glared upon 
him till the bold sceptic trembled ; then fixing them on the earth, 
with her brows knit and her left hand supporting her chin, she stood as 
if meditating what she should do to punish him for the irreverent smile 
she had detected. 

" What would you say to me, good Juno?" said Whitlaw, in an 
accent of respect and kindness, which nothing but terror could have 
drawn from him, when addressing one of her race. 

Nobody could know this better than the old woman herself, and 
feeling that she had hold of his dastard spirit, she determined to give it 
a gripe before he escaped ; therefore, again raising her very terrible- 
looking eyes to his face, and extending her bamboo towards him, she 
said : 

" What would Juno say to you ? 

Unsmile that smile, or you shall rue T 
A negro and a slave am I ; — 
But if it please the powers on high — 
Those fearful powers that fill the air, 
Holding mysterious eounsel there — 
On me their wondrous gifts to send, 
All mortals must before me bend. 
Kneel lowly then upon the mossy sod, 
And kiss repentant my avenging rod. 
Obey ! and love and joy are thine ! 
Rebel ! and vengeance deep is mine ! " 



124 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Upon this awful summons, the nominal freeman knelt down before 
the nominal slave, and did in sober earnest most literally kiss the cane 
she extended to him, while the old woman chuckled inwardly; nay, 
an observant and tranquil-minded spectator might have perceived that 
outwardly, too, she evinced somewhat of the malicious triumph which 
so agreeably tickled her spirit. Her queer mouth twisted and con- 
tracted itself in a very remarkable manner, and there was a comical 
movement in her head that would have infinitely amused any lover of 
fun who had seen and understood it. 

Whitlaw, however, neither saw nor understood anything, but that 
he was in the power of a hateful sorceress, leagued with the devil, and 
in some sort his vicegerent here on earth, whose power and activity 
in the particular spot he inhabited was the necessary consequence of 
the " wealth of niggers" on Paradise Plantation ; an evil which he in- 
wardly swore should be atoned for by the sufferings of this accursed 
race. Meanwhile, self-preservation and self-gratification were of 
course his principal objects; and urged by the feeling which these 
dictated, he framed his features into a look of very meek obedience 
as he rose from his humble position, and repeated his question — 

" Now, good Juno, what would you say to me?" 

One of the old .woman's favourite tricks to produce effect was to 
change her dialect, from the English she had learned but too well dur- 
ing her days of happiness, to the negro gibberish usually spoken by 
her race; declaring that, when using the former, she was " under a 
power," and could not help it. 

She now replied to Whitlaw without the aid of inspiration. 

" l'se right-down glad, massa 'dential clerk, you dutiful to the spirits. 
I 'spect Juno can help you a spell, Massa Whitlaw, with the black 

beauty. — Please speak civil, 'cause of the spirits One — two — three. 

Oh! there they are, skimming and dipping over your head. Speak 
civil, Massa Whitlaw, 'cause else they'll be on me 'gen, and that works 
Juno." 

" Civil 1" muttered Whitlaw between his teeth. " D " 

" Oh . . .h! Oh . . . h!" cried Juno, shuddering, and raising 
her bamboo towards the heavens, " Oh . . . h! They are coming, 
they are coming ." 

Well, then," said Whitlaw, turning pale, " there's money for ye. 
And harkye " 

Here he bent down to the level of old Juno's ear, and, as if fearing 
that the spirits she talked of should overhear him, whispered the com- 
mission he wished to entrust to her. 

" Ay— ay— ay," replied the sybil, nodding her head mysteriously 
three times, and then bursting out in a tone of triumph : 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 125 

" Done ! done it sball he ! 
And fear not that she 
Shall dare wrestle with me, 
Or much longer continue rebellious to thee." 

She then made a sign that he should again lower his head to a level 
with hers ; and having in her turn whispered something to him, she 
started back towards the hut, then paused, and seeing that he still re- 
mained where she left him, her wand was raised into the air, and the 
word " Away !" uttered in a loud, shrill, shrieking accent, that seemed 
preternaturally prolonged till it had reached the craven heart of Whit- 
law ; when he too started off, and departed from the spot as fast as his 
long legs could carry him. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Whatever might have been the whispered compact between W'hit- 
law and his inspired agent, the immediate consequence of it was the 
disappearance of Phebe from her mother's hut. Several days passed, 
and Peggy heard no tidings of her ; but in the interval Edward Bligh 
paid her another midnight visit, to inform her of the reasons he had 
for believing that her daughter had not been sold at Natchez. 

"Thank God for that, Master Edward !" she exclaimed. "Any- 
thing is better than to have her sold away of! the place. — But do you 
think, sir," she continued, "that the clerk has put her into prison?" 

Tears of deep but patient suffering rolled, almost unconsciously to 
herself, down Peggy's cheeks as she spoke. Edward's heart was 
wrung as he looked at her sunken, melancholy features; and though 
he certainly had no great faith in the circumstance himself, he related 
the manner in which Juno had replied to the inquiry of Lucy, by pro- 
nouncing the word "Safe." 

"She did! she did!" cried Peggy in an ecstasy. "Then safe she 
is, Master Edward, as surely as I now hear your voice." 

"Is it possible, Peggy," replied the young man almost reproach- 
fully, "that you, who are a Christian, can place such confidence in a 
word uttered by that poor crazed cripple?" 

"Crazed, Master Edward! — Oh! Juno is not crazed — unless 
crazed folks know more than uncrazed ones." 

" How should she know more, Peggy ? What means of knowledge 
can she possibly have beyond the rest of ye? I hope she is crazy, 
poor soul ! for if not, she is unquestionably an impostor." 

"I may not say no, when you say yes, Master Edward," replied 



12U LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Peggy respectfully; "but the master himself knows, and all the 
overseers as well, that there is no use in not believing Juno. All 
she speaks comes true." 

Edward wisely avoided any discussion on the subject, and pro- 
ceeded to inquire the reason of the people's having absented them- 
selves from worship on the night of the Sabbath ; to which Peggy, re- 
plied that she would willingly tell him all she had heard. "But 
then again, Master Edward," she said, "you will find that Juno knew 
more than any other body." 

She then proceeded to relate, that on the Saturday night, Juno en- 
tered her hut long after she and the children were in bed, and having 
awakened her, very gently whispered in her ear — 

"Pray to the great God of the while man and the negro, kneeling on 
your own door, to-morrow night, if you would save from destruction 
those who have mercifully spoken to you in the name of the Lord." 

A similar visit, Peggy said, accompanied by the same admonilion, 
had been made in the course of that night to every hut on the estate in- 
habited by any of the congregation; and, " wonderful to tell," she 
added, "in two instances in which poor unconverted souls were 
lodged in the same chamber with the faithful, old Juno contrived to 
do her errand without their knowing that she had entered among 
them at all." 

The old woman's manner of effecting her objet upon this occasion 
was certainly extraordinary, and her step must have been as rapid as 
it was silent, for it appeared that between the setting and the rising of 
the sun she had traversed the grounds in all directions. 

"At any rate, Peggy," observed Edward, as he prepared to take his 
leave, " she has not improved my opinion of her by preventing my 
faithful flock from meeting me in the forest. Should she repeat this, 
I shall deeply regret that our meetings were ever made known to her." 

So saying, he departed, leaving a degree of peace and hope with 
Peggy, respecting the fate of her child, which he was himself very far 
from sharing. 

Edward had refused to let his sister accompany him on this mid- 
night expedition, in consideration of the early hour at which the 
waggon would pass on the morrow which was to convey her to 
Natchez ; and it was in truth not long after his return that the inde- 
scribable rumble of a huge American market-waggon, over corduroy 
roads, was heard approaching Fox's clearing. The first vibration of 
this sound gave Lucy warning to descend from her little low-roofed 
chamber, which now seemed to wear an aspect a thousand times 
more endearing than it had ever done before; but she had time to 
linger, and even to mount the ladder-like stair again, to bid it another 
farewell, before the far-resounding machine appeared in sight. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW 127 

Edward would willingly have disbursed double the number of cents 
charged for Lucy's fare to Natchez, for the comfort of escorting her to 
her strange home ; but he felt strongly persuaded that nothing would 
so much contribute to her safety, in case danger fell upon him, as 
their never having been seen together there. The only person who 
knew him by name in the town w r as Mrs. Shepherd ; and from her 
he thought there could be little to fear, even should she hear from him 
as the woodland apostle of the negroes, provided he avoided as effectu- 
ally as it was possible the identifying himself as the brother of her 
work-woman. 

^Yilhout fully entering with Lucy into all his reasons for this, — for 
not for worlds would he have told her how darkly the shadows of 
events that were to come rested upon the path he had to tread, — Ed- 
ward made her understand that, in his opinion, it would be better for 
them to meet only every Sunday in the forest, and pass that day to- 
gether in the quiet, peaceful manner they were wont to do, than for 
him to be ever seen w T ith her at Natchez. 

Neither the employment he had chosen for her, nor the wild and 
precarious existence he had marked out for himself, appeared to Lucy 
at all likely to contribute to the happiness of either. A thousand limes 
would she have preferred continuing the drudgery of their teaching 
together as they had hitherto done, to the certain separation and very 
doubtful advantages of this new scheme ; but Edward had made her 
feel that it was her duty to obey him, and she determined to do so, — 
unless, as a terrible idea which often came across her made her think 
possible — unless a more obvious duty still should oblige her to substi- 
tute her own judgment for his. 

It was therefore with a feeling of depression almost equal to what 
it might have cost her in better days to have quitted a far different home, 
that Lucy mounted the waggon that was to convey her from Fox's 
clearing to the gay and beautiful-looking town of Natchez. 

There are few congregations of houses in any land that offer a fairer 
aspect to the eye than this of Natchez. The sudden and isolated ele- 
vation of its position, commanding, as it does, an unbroken expanse of 
forest and enormous extent, through which the gigantic Mississippi rolls 
its majestic stream, brightly visible at intervals for many miles both up 
and down its course, is of itself, in that region of level sameness, a 
very exhilarating feature. 

The town, though it has no architectural graces to embellish it, is 
nevertheless gay-looking and pretty in no common degree. Nothing 
seems to suggest ideas of greater enjoyment in the external appearance 
of dwelling-houses than those contrivances for obtaining air and shade 
which are found in all warm countries. Whether the same effect be 
produced by this on the imaginations of those who are to " the man- 



128 OPE AND ADVENTURES OF 

ner born," I know not ; but I believe no native of a somewhat north- 
ern climate ever looks upon these preparations for shade in the midst 
of sunshine, without feeling that they promise a very enviable sort of 
enjoyment. 

Natchez abounds in verandas, balconies, and awnings; in addition 
to which, abundance of fine orange-trees fill the air with their perfume. 
The vegetation is universally bright and abundant, and the whole 
scene animated by the variety of its living groups ; among which, 
Creoles, quadroons, and negroes are found in nearly equal proportions ; 
while not unfrequently a party of Indians, more picturesque than any 
of them, may be seen sadly and silently gazing upon the wide expanse 
that was once their own, but which they now traverse with the timid 
step of an intruder. 

On the whole, therefore, the spectacle that meets the eye on emerg- 
ging from the forest behind Natchez is sufficiently beautiful to en- 
liven any spirit less profoundly sad than that of poor Lucy; but, in 
truth, she saw it not. Seated in a corner of the waggon, her close 
bonnet pulled low over her face, and her eyes shut, — in (he hope of 
stopping the national catechism to which she was exposed from the 
driver, as to whence she came, where she was going to slop, et cceiera 
— by feigning to be asleep, — the melancholy girl saw nothing till the 
vehicle drove up to the brick pavement before Mrs. Shepherd's door : 
and perhaps she would willingly have closed her eyes again, when they 
showed her the grim, sharp, sour features of the slid mistress of the 
establishment to which she was about to belong. 

"Soh ! here you be, then," was the first salutation that greeted her. 
"Well, I didn't need have been in a pucker about your beauty, 
nohow! Why, you're as pale as new whitewash. I calculate you 
can't stand much steady work, Miss?" 

"I am not in bad health, madam; but I rose very early this 
morning, which has perhaps made me paler than usual." 

"Humph! I expect that you calculate early-rising to be bad for 
the health, then : but that's not a notion that will be approbated here ; 
so it's not over and above lucky." 

"I am never late in bed," replied Lucy gently. It required an 
effort to pronounce even these few words without tears. The obser- 
vation of Mrs. Shepherd unluckily touched a chord that suddenly took 
her memory back to the time, little more than one short year ago, when 
Phebe used to enter her pretty, nicely-curtained apartment on tiptoe, 
and before she let in a sunbeam upon her young mistress, watched 
cautiously to see if her fine eyes were open to receive it. 

Poor Lucy felt much more angry at her own weakness for suffering 
such a thought to affect her, than at the harshness of the words which 
gave rise to it. But some of her mental reproaches ought to have 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHlTLAW. 129 

fallen upon her uncalculaling thoughtlessness in leaving her hreakfast 
unlasled. The waggon-road to Natchez, from the necessity of going 
round a very wide, unfordable creek, was somewhat more than twelve 
miles ; and deliberate as that motion must have been which carried her 
over it at the rate of two miles an hour, it is nevertheless certain that 
the continuance of it for six hours, when fasting, did make Lucy feel 
very painfully exhausted ; a weakness which may be the more readily 
excused, when the depressed state of her spirits at parting for the first 
time in her life from her brother is taken into consideration. 

Her slight and delicate frame, however, was animated by a mind 
that would not have disgraced one promising greater strength ; and her 
tearful propensities were chased by a genuine smile when Mrs. 
Shepherd continued the conversation by saying, "I expect you'll be 
for beginning your boarding at once, Miss Bligh V 

" I should indeed be very glad of some breakfast," replied Lucy. 

"I guess so; and I'll be setting the work you are to start with 
while you eat it: that's lit for tat, you know. Dido!" screamed the 
mistress of the house, without moving from her place behind the 
counter. 

A little negress of about ten years old answered the call. 

"Take a cup of coffee and a roll for the new lady into the keeping- 
room; and tell Miss Clarinda Butterworth to come tome." 

Miss Clarinda Butterworth appeared accordingly. 

"Here's the new Miss for the plain-work, Miss Clary. Show her 
in; and then step back to me for the frock-skirts she's to begin with. 
She'll be aftereating her breakfast while I fix 'em." 

The young person thus addressed was far from ill-looking ; but 
there was a little air of pretension and hauteur about her, particularly 
observable as she ran her eyes over the attire of the humble personage 
committed to her charge, which might have been very disagreeable to 
one who had in any degree aspired to competition with the elegance of 
a young Natchez sempstress of unmixed white blood. Luckily, this 
was a presumption that Lucy dreamed not of; and consequently the 
little toss of the head, and the lazy, reluctant sort of step, with which 
Miss Clary preceded her to the keeping-room, were as harmless as 
the chirpings of a gay-plumaged bird. 

The keeping-room was a good-sized parlour behind the shop ; and 
Lucy found assembled there four young women, who, with herself and 
her conductor, formed the whole company of Mrs. Shepherd's very 
thriving needlework establishment. 

" How d'ye do, Miss Lucy Bligh ? " exclaimed a bright-faced, black- 
eyed girl as she entered, whose countenance expressed, in pretty equa 
proportions, boldness and good-humour: " we have been looking for 
you this half-hour." 

9 



130 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

"You behave yourself, Miss Arabella Tomkins," said a damsel at 
least a dozen years her senior, who, from her situation at the head of a 
long work-lable, a careful frown upon her brow, and an air of precision 
over her whole person, was evidently the deputy commander-in-chief: 
" that's no way to receive a new-comer." 

Lucy paused for a moment after she entered, to see if she should be 
invited to any particular place in the apartment : but this not being the 
case, she placed herself at a little table near one of the windows, which 
being open, tempted her, both from the fresh air and fine prospect 
which it offered. 

"Beg your pardon, but that's my place, if you please," said the 
haughty Miss Clarinda, placing her hand upon the back of the chair 
thus unintentionally usurped. Lucy quilled it instantly ; when her 
conductor, pulling the middle finger of her right hand in her mouth, 
and then ensconcing it in her thimble, sat herself down to work, with- 
out uttering a single syllable more, either of introduction or wel- 
come. 

" Will you please to sit here? " said a girl, the sweetness of whose 
voice and accent caused Lucy involuntarily to hasten her step as she 
approached to accept the offered chair. This welcome overture came 
from the youngest and the prettiest girl in the room ; but her large 
eyes, as she raised them to give the stranger a glance of welcome, had 
an expression of shyness that made Lucy feel the more grateful to her 
for the effort she had made to relieve her from her awkward position. 

" Thank you very much," said Lucy, "but I am afraid I shall be 
in your way ; don't let me derange all this beautiful lace." 

"Oh no ! " replied the litlle beauty ; " here is quite room, and to 
spare, for you and me too." 

"Mind your work, Miss Talbot," was uttered from the top of the 
table. 

A girl on Ihe olher side of Lucy laughed aloud, and then said, in a 
tone that hardly affected to be a whisper, " Cross old maids are a 
plague everywhere, a'n't ihey, Miss Bligh? " 

" You think you may say anything to-day, 'cause of the pine-apple, 
Miss Olivia ; but Mrs. Shepherd must look for another fore-woman 
if your tongue's to run that rate." 

Miss Olivia hummed a tune. 

At this moment the litlle Dido entered, with a tray bearing a large 
cup of coffee and a very delicate-looking white roll. Wherever there 
are slaves, all white persons who are hired to work at any employment 
are sure to be delicately fed ; as the difference made between the two 
races is always as marked as possible in this particular, as well as in 
all olhers. 

" I suppose you are half starved, Miss Lucy Bligh ? " said the laugh- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 131 

ing-eyed Arabella, in a tone that seemed to hover between quizzing 
and kindness. 

Lucy wisely chose to answer to the latter only, and replied with a 
very sweet smile, " It is very true, indeed. I have eaten nothing to- 
day, and have been travelling ever since four o'clock." 

"My — ! " responded Arabella, the good-humoured division of her 
piebald character coming forward; " what's one cup of coffee after 
that? I say, black devil, — you Dido, you, — bring another cup of 
coffee here, hot, hot, hot, and another roll, this instant, or I'll roll you 
in no lime." 

" You are very kind," said Lucy, really enjoying her repast, and 
cheered to think that neither Mrs. Shepherd, her prim deputy, nor 
even the sublime Clarinda were to be her only companions; "but I 
am afraid that Mrs. Shepherd will think me absolutely voracious." 

"Never mind her if she does/' said Arabella: "she's bound to 
board, as you know, and we're not to be treated like niggers." 

Miss Clarinda Bulterworth left the room while this was passing, 
and presently returned with an armful of little white dresses, which, 
with a fitting accompaniment of threads and needles, she delivered 
over to Lucy "to begin ; who, hastily concluding her breakfast, set 
herself with a most willing spirit to her task. 

" Three on one side the table, and one on the other, ladies, is the 
way to have room fit — for nothing but just to run your needles into 
each other's eyes; so you'll please to walk over, Miss Lucy Bligh, and 
seat yourself by Miss Arabella Tomkins." 

Lucy obeyed ; but it was not without reluctance, that she quitted 
the side of the pretty creature who had been addressed by the fore- 
woman as Miss Talbot. It is true that she had not again addressed 
her ; but her first friendly words, and sundry little kind attentions 
during her breakfast, made her feel as if she were leaving a friend. 

Before Lucy again seated herself, she proposed to lay aside her 
shawl and bonnet, which Miss Talbot had taken from her and laid upon 
the table. 

" These things will be in the way here, ma'am," said she, address- 
ing the superior: "shall I take them to my room?" 

"You're to sleep with me, Miss Bligh," exclaimed the pretty little 
Talbot eagerly ; " so I will show you the way." 

The two girls left the room together, but not without a word of ad- 
monition from their chief, intimating that they were not to stay too 
long. 

In the short interview which they allowed themselves after mount- 
ing to the little attic allotted for their use, Lucy was pleased to observe 
that her companion uttered no phrase against any of the party they had 
left, or even the sour Mrs. Shepherd herself, but pointed out with 



13-2 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

pretty eagerness all the little preparations she had made for her com- 
fort, and then said, " Now let us make haste down stairs ; it is much 
better to please Miss Frampton if we can." 

Lucy's judgment as well as her temper led her to agree very heartily 
in this opinion, and she followed her new friend down stairs with more 
lightness of heart than she had felt since Edward first announced her 
new vocation. "It's eleven o'clock, ladies," was uttered by Miss 
Frampton as they entered. The two girls separated, each taking her 
allotted place ; and we must now leave Lucy sedulously engaged in 
propitiating the favour of her employer by the rapid and skilful move- 
ment of her delicate fingers. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

For some hours after Lucy's departure, her brother again fell into 
that wavering stale of mind which had already nearly shaken his rea- 
son. He had sent from him the only earthly object to which his heart 
clung; he had consigned to another the precious charge which his 
dying father bequeathed to his care ; he had left himself alone, sur- 
rounded by ignorance and sin, while the one bright spirit that God had 
given to cheer and sustain him in his thorny path was by his own act 
banished from the place that Nature assigned her by his side, to buffet 
alone with the rude encounters inevitable in the position in which he 
had placed her. 

" Lucy ! my pretty Lucy!" he exclaimed, while tears of anguish 
rolled down his pale cheeks, " how wilt thou bear ' the spurns that 
patient merit of the unworthy takes,' when thou hast no fond brother 
close at hand to love and comfort thee?" 

And then his imagination, active to an excess that too surely indi- 
cated disease, placed his gentle sister before him in a hundred different 
situations in which she was exposed to vulgar insolence, or still more 
offensive admiration. 

He started up, determined at all risks to follow and reclaim her; but 
ere he had walked a quarter of a mile from his door, another set of 
images seized upon his fancy with equal distinctness. He heard the 
mingled accents of penitence and hope rising amidst the midnight si- 
lence of the forest from the race oppressed in body and in soul, whom 
God had called upon him to succour ; he saw them clinging to him 
and the faith he taught, in defiance of stripes and bonds. Should he 
forsake them? No ! not even if by so doing he could place his beloved 
sister on the throne of the world. No ! he would share their bonds — 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 133 

he would partake their stripes — he would follow and exhort them to lift 
their tearful eyes to God, till the bloody death that threatened him 
should close his lips for ever. 

. And Lucy? — must her spotless life be offered up with his? Ed- 
ward's soul shrunk from the needless sacrifice, and after pausing on his 
way for many minutes with clasped hands and downcast eyes in earnest 
meditation, he turned back, once more relieved by the conviction that 
it was his duty to send his sister from him. * 

Never was there a human soul on which virtue had a stronger hold '( 
than that of Edward Bligh. Once more persuaded that he was doing 
right, his serenity returned, his mind recovered its wonted power, and 
he again believed himself capable of great and glorious actions. 

He now determined upon once more seeking Frederick Steinmark. 
He had already made a second visit to Reichland ; but the father of the 
family was in his fields, and he would not enter. With a spirit invigo- 
rated by renewed confidence in himself, Edward proceeded to the 
happy dwelling of his new friend. He was again ushered into the 
common sitting-room, and again stood before the noble German 
forester ; but not, as before, was Frederick Steinmark the only object 
upon which his eye now rested. Standing beside him as he sat in his 
accustomed chair, with one hand resting on its high back, and the other 
lovingly caressing the scanty curls of her father, stood Lotte, certainly 
much fairer than the daughters of man if taken at their usual standard, 
and with a look at once so innocent and so brightly beaming with intel- 
ligence and joy, that it is impossible to conceive tnything more likely 
to seize upon such an imagination as that of Edward, than was her 
figure as thus presented to him. He gazed for one short moment only, 
but her image thenceforward became the idol of his fancy, till every 
throbbing pulse was hushed for ever. 

Lotte was engaged, when young Bligh approached, in pleading 
earnestly for some favour about which her smiling father seemed to 
hesitate. She stopped short however in her eager speech as soon as 
she saw him, and somewhat abashed by the ardent but involuntary 
gaze of the young man, curtsied slightly and prepared to depart. 

Lotte knew perfectly well, however, who he was ; for her father, 
though he carefully kept Caesar's secret, had given so animated and 
faithful a description of the forest schoolmaster that she could not 
mistake him ; and had he looked at her with less evident wonder and 
admiration, she would have greatly wished to become acquainted with 
a person who had so deeply interested her father. As it was, perhaps 
she was not sorry when Frederick Steinmark, while he held out one 
hand to welcome Edward, retained her with the other. 

"You must not run away, Lottchen," said he. " Mr. Bligh, this 
is my only daughter ; and there," pointing to the open portico before 



1.4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

the windows, " are four idle sons of mine, as much bent upon a thrift- 
less frolic as if they were in fatherland, where gentles eatthe corn they 
do not reap. Your coming is a godsend for them. I really believe 
I shall now grant their petition, — which is for us to go, one and all, 
to eat our dinner and pick strawberries in a meadow behind Karl's 
mill, — that I may have the pleasure of introducing you to my whole 
family with as little delay as possible." 

Edward answered with as much grace as any man could be expected 
to do who was in the very act of falling desperately in love for the first 
time in his life. 

" That is well, then," said Steinmark, in reply to Edward's timid 
acceptance of the invitation ; " and you may now go, Lotte, and an- 
nounce to your mother, and the noisy party she has got round her, 
that it is my patriarchal will and pleasure this wild-goose scheme 
should take place ; whereby we shall lose the decent comforts of my 
farmhouse board, in order to gain the extraordinary gratification of 
eating a meal like so many houseless Bohemians. Away with ye !" 

Lotte bounded across the long room and through the window, where- 
upon the arrival of her and her news at the portico was announced 
by a discharge of hurrahs that seemed to make the welkin ring ; and the 
instant after, the whole party dispersed and were out of sight, some in 
one direction, some in another, in order to collect the multitudinous 
articles of which the luxuries of a dinner on the grass must be com- 
posed. Lotte darted otflo the garden to seek lettuces, tomatoes, cu- 
cumbers, and all the other solid delicacies with which that metropolis 
of the vegetable kingdom abounds. 

Even in the transient glance which Edward caught of her figure as 
she glided past the other windows, he perceived that she went not 
alone. He perceived too, to his sudden and unspeakable torment, 
that the stately figure which accompanied her seemed bending to con- 
verse with her with a sort of courtly assiduity, that, highly as he rated 
brother's love among earthly affections, could not proceed from one 
who stood in that relation. 

" Now, my friend, we are alone," said Steinmark, "my wild flock 
are on the wing, and I may venture to tell you that our poor runaway 
is perfectly restored to health and strength after his weary travel and 
long fast ; but I think it would be as well for you not to attempt seeing 
him at present." 

Such were the words of Frederick Steinmark, addressed to the man 
who, a few days before, had spoken on this subject with a degree of 
feeling and agitation that it was almost painful to witness. And how 
did he listen to it now? His eyes fixed upon the spot at which he had 
seen Lotte disappear, his ears insensible of the sounds that reached 
them, and his whole person having the air of a man sleeping rather 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 135 

(han waking, he stood before Steinmark heart-struck, silent, and im- 
movable. 

The kind-tempered German smiled as he watched a fit of absence 
more completely absorbing to the faculties than any, as he believed, 
that he had ever himself indulged in. But sympathising with the ma- 
lady, and feeling that it deserved all indulgence, he treated Edward 
exactly as he would have wished to be treated himself on all similar 
occasions ; that is to say, he left him unmolested to recover his wits, 
while he pursued the lecture which the petition of Lotte had inter- 
rupted. 

The pang which had transfixed Edward, though it left a wringing 
anguish at his heart which his after-life was not long enough to cure, 
kept not his senses enchained beyond one or two dreamy moments ; 
and he then started with a mixture of astonishment and offended pride 
at seeing Steinmark reading composedly in his easy chair, while he 
stood unnoticed before him. 

Edward turned to go ; but before he had taken a second step, the 
recollection of the party about to set off for the meadow, the invitation 
he had received to join it, and the gratitude he owed for the important 
kindness already bestowed, made him turn again, and in a voice which 
many conflicting feelings caused to tremble, he said : 

" I fear, sir, that I have intruded on you very inconveniently." 

Steinmark raised his eyes, and instantly perceived an expression of 
wounded feeling in the countenance of his interesting guest. 

"Intruded, Mr. Bligh? No, no! But, do you know, I suspect 
that, over and above the points of resemblance which we mutually 
discovered in each other when last we met, I may now shake hands with 
you on the discovery of another. My saucy children tell me thai I 
am the most absent man alive, but I think you beat me. Now, tell 
me, did you hear one word of all I said to you about Caesar?" 

"Caesar, sir!" repeated Edward, while a tingling consciousness of 
the cause of his strange inattention crimsoned his cheeks. "I beg 
your pardon : certainly I did not hear you name Caesar. How is he, 
sir!" 

" You could not have indulged in a fit of absence before any one 
more bound to forgive it than myself," replied Steinmark, laughing ; 
"and therefore I will repeat my assurances that your protege is as well 
as if he had never missed a meal or feared a flogging. But what are we 
to do with him next, my good friend V 

Once more awakened to thoughts of earth, Edward entered eagerly 
and with most anxious feeling into the subject. He staled the reasons 
he had for believing that the slave-holders throughout the country 
were more on the alert than ever to discover and punish all delin- 
quencies among their slaves, and hinted his serious apprehensions that 



130 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Mr. Steinmark himself might suffer for the pitying kindness he had 
extended to the poor runaway. 

" I do not think that, even were the thing discovered, they could 
punish me for the misdemeanour in any way that would materially 
annoy me," replied the German composedly ; '.' but tell me, Mr. Bligh, 
has anything occurred to you since we met last to suggest the idea 
that these bloodhounds are more vindictive than formerly ?" 

Edward hesitated. " Before my answer to this question can be in- 
telligible, my dear sir," he said, " I think I must become for a short 
space my own biographer." 

'•' You could not please me better," replied his host, with a look and 
accent that might have given courage and confidence to the most mo- 
dest spirit that ever shrunk from such a task ; "and indeed," he ad- 
ded, " you stand partly bound to this by promise. The preparations 
for our rural feasting will occupy the projectors of it for a full hour, 
I doubt not ; and I will lead you to a spot where they will be sure to 
seek me, but less liable to interruption than this, where I can mean- 
while enjoy the gratification I so greatly wish for, of knowing some- 
thing more about a man so singularly unlike those amongst whom fate 
has thrown him." 

He led the way to the open window as he spoke, and having left the 
room, proceeded across the lawn to a bank of turf raised under the 
shelter of a noble tulip-tree. A semicircle of fine orange-trees nearly 
enclosed it in the front, but leaving an opening to a small flower-garden, 
so evidently of feminine arrangement, that Edward, as he took his 
seat upon the bank, felt almost as if he was again in the presence of the 
wondrous creature who had flashed across his sight more, as he thought, 
like a vision of light than a reality. 

It was indeed a lovely nook — sheltered, cool, fragrant and seques- 
tered, well-suited both for confidence and repose; and here Edward 
Bligh recounted the sad incidents of his life, and the singular position 
in which they had left him and his young sister, with a simple pathos 
that went to the very heart of the good German, and created a feeling of 
admiration and attachment to both the orphans which he was far from 
attempting or intending to express in words. 

" But why, in the name of kind feeling and good fellowship, Ed- 
ward, is not your dear Lucy with us here? If our situations had been 
reversed — if you had had the home and I the sister, she would not 
have been now in Mrs. Shepherd's store at Natchez. So there is not 
such perfect sympathy between us, Bligh, after all." 

But there was moisture in the eye of Steinmark as he spoke; and as 
he uttered this reproach, he held out his hand to the object of it. 
Edward grasped that friendly hand with deep emotion, and replied 
with perfect frankness ; 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 137 

11 Nor do I think I could have had the heart to place her there after 
seeing you, had it not been for Caesar, and for the weight of obligation 
I had already taken on myself for his sake. To have thrown another 
upon your bounty, even though that other was my sister, merely be- 
cause I read your generous heart in your eyes, would have been like 
extorlion, — I could not do it." 

" Surely you blundered egregiously, my young friend, in placing 
two such acts, as hiding a runaway negro in a country where murder 
has been repeatedly committed to punish those who would befriend the 
race, and receiving your glorious sister Lucy as a friend and inmate 
upon the same fooling. In the first case, I freely confess that I do 
think I showed myself to be a very good-natured fellow, and that you 
ought to make me your best bow for receiving so dangerous a guest as 
Caesar; but for the second, I most truly believe that the obligation 
would be much more on our side than yours. You may partly guess, 
Edward, how profound must be the retirement in which we live ; and 
would it be a slight good, think you, for my Lotte to have, for the first 
time in her life, such a companion as your gentle, patient, and ac- 
complished Lucy?" 

There was something most deliciously soothing to the feelings of 
Edward in the idea that it was possible his sister might become the 
favoured and favourite friend of Lotte Steinmark. He murmured some 
few words expressive of grateful feelings, and his countenance spoke 
more eloquently than his tongue ; but Frederick Steinmark was far from 
guessing what a rush of unspeakable gratitude his words had produced; 
for, in most simple truth, he meant exactly what he said, in declaring 
that the society of such a girl as the Lucy of Edward's narrative would 
be an inestimable blessing to his daughter. 

" This day," resumed Steinmark, " will make you in some degree 
acquainted with my family. But there is also a young stranger with 
us, a countryman, who has wandered thus far from the fatherland solely 
for the gratification of a wandering fancy. My eldest son made ac- 
quaintance with Iiira in Philadelphia, and has brought him to his forest 
home ; and this Sigismond von Hochland really seems to deserve all 
the fine things our Fritz says of him. Nevertheless, I cannot allude 
to your touching story, Edward, before him, till you shall yourself 
know him sufficiently to admithim to your friendship : but my wife must 
hear it, and her invitation will then be joined to mine for the speedy 
arrival of your dear sister among us. And yet," continued Steinmark 
thoughtfully after a moment's silence, " eager as I am for this, I do 
believe it will be more prudent to get Caesar off the premises before 
she arrives. Should he unhappily be discovered here, I fear that both 
you and your Lucy might suffer much inconvenience were your share 
in the transaction to be traced. I suspect that, even now, you are in 



138 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

some degree a marked man among these abominable slave-drivers, 
Edward. The absence of your woodland congregation on Sunday night 
most decidedly indicates alarm amongst them; and I think, therefore, 
that I must counsel you, contrary as it is to my wishes, to let your 
sweet sister remain where she is for a few days. You are quite right 
not to be seen with her at Natchez; but perhaps on the Sabbath, if 
she meets you in the forest, as you talk of, we might arrange our idle 
Sunday ramble so as to effect an introduction without bringing her to 
Reichland. It may be some consolation for her to know that she has 
friends so near her." 

This conversation respecting Lucy, her situation, and her feelings, 
did more towards restoring Edward entirely to himself than anything 
else could have possibly done. He most entirely agreed with Stein- 
mark that there was the greatest necessity, for all their sakes, that the 
utmost caution should at this moment be used in everything with which 
they were mutually concerned : and this being admitted, they set to 
scheming and planning, proposing and rejecting, a number of devices 
for the disposal of Caesar. 

But their consultations were soon interrupted, their privacy invaded, 
and all thoughts for the future put to flight, by the appearance of the 
parly which approached them from the house. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Far in advance of the rest was Hermann. It was he who, as usual, 
undertook to find his father and, more difficult far, to rouse him from 
whatever occupation or reverie might have thrown its chains over him, 
and to bring him to join the joyous set who were starting off for Karl's 
Erdbeere Fold, as the not far-distant place of their destination was 
constantly called by all the family ; though the young miller very grave- 
ly declared, that if it produced no crop more valuable than the erd- 
beeren from which they chose to name it, he would plough it up in spite 
of them all. Notwithstanding this assumption of prudence in the lord 
of the land to which they were going, there was not one of the set who 
appeared to enter into the strawberry frolic with more zeal than him- 
self. With his mother on one arm, and a huge basket on the other, 
Karl came next in order, the very emblem of youth, health, and cheer- 
fulness. His large straw hat seemed rather to be suspended upon some 
sturdy bunch of his thick sunny curls, than to be fixed in the ordinary 
mode upon his head ; while his laughing blue eyes looked out from 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW 



139 



under it as if to challenge the anticipated exclamations its extraordinary 
position might elicit. 

Mary, who looked, as her husband often told her, a great deal too 
pretty and too young to be the mother of so stalwart a youth, walked 
beside him, looking up into his bright young face with an eye almost as 
mirthful as his own, though in sage and sober accents she repeated once 
and again — 

"Karl! Karl! what will your countryman— a baron too!— think 
of your wild ways? Be sober, Karl, or, upon my. word, I must fall 
back upon the squadron behind. What a very queer boy you are! 
Whenever you are more than commonly disposed to be whimsical, it 
seems to me that you always select me for your companion. lam 
afraid I have very little dignity, Karl." 

" Not the very least bit in the world, mother. Now, if you were 
only in the slightest degree like my ever reverenced, honoured, and 
honourable auntKaroline, born Baroness Von Uberkumpher, how dif- 
ferently would all your children treat you ! But don't take on, mother, 
— it can't be helped now ; so you may as well bring down your spirit 
to your condition, and submit to be loved and adored by your re- 
publican children, just as if there was no such thing as dignity in the 
world." 

Behind the mother and son followed the unrustic figure of Fritz, 
very carefully and cautiously driving a wheelbarrow containing all the 
weightier matters necessary to the feast ; and Ihe procession closed by 
a trio, consisting of Lotte, Sigismond Von Hochland, and Henrich. 

When they first started, Henrich was as usual at Lolle's side ; but 
ere they reached the orange-trees, the description Von Hochland was 
giving her of the scenery near his own residence in Westphalia won 
him from it, and the stranger was now walking between them. The 
gay and animated young man spoke in his native tongue, which, 
though native also to his companions, was no longer their ordinary 
language, and it had for both of them a charm which certainly in- 
creased the pleasure with which they listened to him. Lotte, though 
her gayer spirits prevented her pining for the land of her birth with the 
intense longing after it which embittered the existence of her brother, 
had nevertheless drunk in its poetry, and revelled in the descriptions 
of its scenery, till she too was as devotedly a child of Germany in her 
heart as himself; and loved its voice, and its music, its storied castles, 
and its sunny hills, as if she remembered the early days she had passed 
among them. The arrival of Sigismond was certainly the most ani- 
mating event that had ever broken the monotony of their peaceful lives ; 
and perhaps it was some conciousness of the pleasure he gave which 
inspired the animated expression his handsome countenance wore, as 



MO LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

he rapidly poured forth his recollections and his feelings to the willing 
ears of the hrolher and sister. 

But though earnestly engaged in conversation, they were neverthe- 
less as actively assisting as the rest of the party in the business of the 
day. Henrich bore in each hand a basket of something, he knew not 
what, which Karl had committed to his charge ; Sigismondhad swung 
over his shoulder with very reverend care a delicate frail, filled with 
salad, entrusted to him byLotte; while the fair maiden herself very 
daintily balanced between her two hands, at first setting out, a little 
basket without a handle, packed by herself, wherein, womanlike, she 
had mixed utility with elegance ; for it contained cream from her own 
pretty dairy, enough, according to Hermann's instructions, to drown 
all Karl's strawberries, together with abundance of sweet-scented flowers 
to strew around the spot they should select forthe scene of their repast. 
But as Sigismond grew more animated, this double-handed caution be- 
come more embarrassing, .for she could not look towards him without 
endangering the balance; so at length she stopped, saying, " Henrich, 
do you not think we could contrive to envelop my cream and flowers 
in a napkin, and then swing it over a stick, as Herr Sigismond has 
done his frail?" 

It was exactly as the trio stopped to make this proposed alteration 
in the arrangement of the baggage, that Steinmark and Edward, obey- 
ing the call of Hermann, came forth from the shelter of the orange- 
trees and joined the parly. Steinmark felt that he had perhaps enlisted 
his new friend in a party too gaily light-hearted to be agreeable to one 
who had so many heavy cares upon his mind ; but it was done, and 
could not be recalled ; so the next thought that crossed his benevolent 
mind was how to make the day pass pleasantly with him. He per- 
ceived at a glance that the gay young baron was enlisted into the play- 
ful service of the hour, and perceiving some unfinished arrangement 
about the packages which surrounded Lotte, he put his arm through 
Edward's, and leading him up to her, said, 

11 Here, Lottchen, I bring you a very valuable recruit, able and 
willing to help you in all the vagaries you may choose to perform. 
Herr Hochland, give me leave to introduce to you my valued friend 
Mr. Edward Bligh." 

If Frederick Steinmark's object was to put Edward at his ease, he 
failed completely : it was not ease he felt,— every faculty was on the 
stretch, every sense was strained. But if, thoughtless of his ease, his 
purpose was to make him happy, he succeeded perfectly : happiness 
unfelt, unknown, unimagined till that moment, throbbed in his breast 
and bounded through his veins. 

He was close to Lotte. Lotto was speaking to him ; she smiled too, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHIT LAW. 141 

smiled on him as she placed the light burthen she allotted him on his 
arm; and with the exception of some ecstatic intervals, when a rapt 
enthusiasm had seemed to raise him altogether above the joys or sorrows 
of Ibis mortal state, this moment was decidedly the happiest of his life. 
Joyously then did the troop march onward towards the mill. But 
though the distance was short, the way — on this occasion at least — was 
long. Fritz overturned the wheelbarrow at one spot, and Sigismond's 
frail slipped off his slick at another. Lottchen stumbled as the Herr 
Hochland was talking to her of fatherland ; but Edward was close 
behind, and his hand prevented her basket, if not herself, from falling. 
Steinmark and Hermann amused themselves with finding out cross 
nooks in the short bit of forest they had to pass, and then trying who 
could best recover them, — an exercise at which the senior beat the 
junior hollow. Mary and Karl continued together, and pursued their 
way with as much steadiness as the gambols of the young miller would 
permit; and Henrich still hung on the skirts of his countryman, en- 
joying from time to time such renewal of their former conversation as 
the desultory nature of their progress wouid permit. 

But it was astonishing to observe the multitude of unforeseen ac- 
cidents which detained them. Sometimes it was a very harmless 
snake which darted from bush to brake before them, but which Karl, 
in the superfluity of his activity, declared must be chased and put out 
of harm's way ; which meant, as he explained it, to be placed beyond 
the power of giving or receiving injury for evermore. Then Lotle's 
eyes were accidentally raised to a marvellous cluster of wild grapes 
that hung above their heads, and the baskets must be placed on the 
ground, and the grapes must be won, before another step forward 
could be taken. At another lime a whole bevy of butterflies seemed to 
spring up, as it were, from the ground, and showed themselves so 
brightly beautiful to the unaccustomed eyes of the gay Sigismond, that 
he must perforce catch some of them. Then followed laughter at his 
want of skill, accompanied by consolatory assurances that what he 
mistook for marvels were in truth the most ordinary insects that 
Louisiana produced. In short, so much time was expended in this 
ramble over a plain path of a mile and a half long, that by the time they 
reached the Erdbeere Feid, Karl, who proclaimed himself master of 
the revels, as one of his manorial rights, declared that if they did not 
all and every of them set about gathering the strawberries forthwith, 
and that steadily and perseveringly, without gossip, sport, or idleness 
of any kind, they might as well set off again to return as they came, 
for the purpose of the expedition would be defeated, inasmuch as it 
wouid be found impossible to complete the work in reasonable lime for 
dinner. 

This solemn remonstrance produced the desired effect — in a moment 



142 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

the whole party were to be seen scattered singly over the field ; and 
though before the commanded quantity was fully furnished, some 
alteration in this disposition of the gleaners took place, and Sigismond 
had approached Lolle on one side, and Edward on the other, the 
business was on the whole well and punctually accomplished. And 
then the riot and the din of unpacking the wheelbarrow, and disposing 
with all imaginable inconvenience and enjoyment its contents upon the 
grass, followed ; and that sort of happy, noisy confusion took place, 
which those only can conceive who have shared in the very delightful 
but very unaccountable enjoyment of preparing a dinner upon the 
grass. 

A few short hours before, any one who well knew Edward Bligh 
would have declared that no scene could have less charm for him than 
the one in which he was now engaged. Mirth in his best and happiest 
days had but little attraction for him ; and though he loved to wander 
for hours amid the beautiful scenery of his native State, the con- 
templative temper of his mind communicated a pensive, quiet com- 
posure to his step, as unlike as possible to the noisy, bounding progress 
which at one moment sent his present companions forward at the rate 
of five miles an hour, while at another they all stopped short as if spell- 
bound, to find subject for mirth in they knew not what, and an excuse 
for tarrying, they knew not why. Still less, perhaps, was the scene 
which followed such as he would have heretofore joined in with 
pleasure ; but now his eyes shot forth glances of young joy, as he 
found himself sealed on the grass beside Lotle Steinmark. Could he 
have looked into her heart, he might perhaps have lost a portion of the 
intoxicating pleasure he now for the first time tasted. He might have 
seen that the ready ear, the gentle smile, the courteous reply she lent 
him, were rather the result of what she believed to be her father's 
wishes than of her own. He might have discovered, that even while 
her beautiful eyes were turned on him, she was unconsciously listening 
to every word pronounced, whether to her or to another, on the other 
side, where sat Sigismond. But he saw, he knew nothing but that he 
was sealed in dear, familiar, friendly intercourse beside the only woman 
who had ever charmed his senses, and taught him to know what poets 
mean by "Love." 

In truth, it was a pleasant banquet to all. The jocund laugh went 
round, and so did the bright light goblet of their native wine — a luxury 
furnished by the good Baron Steinmark in greater abundance than his 
rustic brethren wished or approved ; but on occasions like the present, 
the forest family drank to their distant kinsman's health with cordial 
gratilude. Then followed some of their slill fondly cherished native 
airs. Lotte sang with the wild untutored sweetness of a bird. Her 
ear was excellent, and Henrich taught her by his flageolet all the most 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 143 

popular tunes of Germany, a large collection of which had been sent 
him by his uncle. The words loo which she sang were generally of 
Henrich's composition, and for the most part expressed his clinging 
love for the soil that gave him birth. 

It was perhaps in compliment to Sigismond that Lotte on this oc- 
casion selected a ballad in which Henrich had poured forth, on a well- 
known German air, and in his nalive tongue, all the glowing patriotic 
feelings which more than warmed — which in truth burned in his 
breast ; and the touching style in which she sang it gave sufficient evi- 
dence that every word found its echo in her own heart. Frederick 
and Mary exchanged a glance, and sighed : they well knew Henrich's 
ardent love of the country that was no longer his, but till now they 
had neither of them been fully aware how deeply Lotte sympathised 
in this feeling. 

The effect of the ballad and Lotte's manner of singing it was suffi- 
ciently powerful on all present. Edward, who understood quite 
enough of the language to catch the feeling it inspired, would have 
joyfully given half the existence remaining to him on earth could be 
thereby have become a native German. The eyes of Henrich over- 
flowed ; and even his gay brothers, now so firmly rooted in the soil 
to which they had been transplanted, looked sad and thoughtful. 
Young Sigismond alone enjoyed the whole thing — melody, words, and 
the deep feeling which accompanied them — with unmixed delight. 
"Charming! charming! charming!" he exclaimed, with clasped hands 
and glistening eyes. " How little did I expect to hear such sounds 
in a Louisianian forest V 

"And now Sigismond," said Fritz, " it is your turn. Lotte's words 
I never heard before; but she sang them to the same air, if I mistake 
not, on which you composed your own patriotic rhapsody. The tune 
is good enough to hear twice. We have had, as I guess, the Stein- 
mark version — now let us have the Hochland." 

A vivid blush dyed the cheeks of the young baron at this address, 
but it passed in an instant, and with equal frankness and good hu- 
mour he drew a flute from his pocket, and having skilfully played the 
beautiful national air which Lotte had just sung, he laid the instru- 
ment aside, and sang to the same notes, and in his own musical lan- 
guage, some verses which he had written a few weeks before at 
Philadelphia, and performed for the benefit of his friend Fritz. The 
thoughts when put into English might be rendered as follows : 

Hark to the strain ! 

Let me hear it again— 
Tis a spell that can waft me o'er land and o'er sea ; 

Oh ! hark to the strain ! 

Is it pleasure or pain, 
That sends my heart, Fatherland ! throbbing to thee ? 



144 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

It is glorious, when Fancy has taken the helm, 
To mount the gay bark that shall bear us along, 
And to bound at her touch to some newly-found realm, 
There to wander with her, its strange children among. 

And what is the strain 

We would gladly hear then ? 
'Tis the cheering yo ! yo! and the favouring gale, 
That should sing through our rigging, and tighten our sail. 

And 'tis more glorious still when, with light-hearted glee, 
We in truth start to wander o'er land and o'er sea; 
When the eye of the body roams, hoping to find 
Things as fair as they seem'd to the eye of the mind. 

And all may seem fair — and the eye may explore 
With gladness what ne'er met its glances before ; 
But the heart aches to feel that the farther we roam, 
The more sadly will Echo repeat the word " home ! " 

Then hark to this strain ! 

Let us hear it again — 
'Tis a spell that can waft us o'er land and o'er sea ; 

Oh ! hark to the strain ! 

Be it pleasure or pain, 
That sends our hearts, Fatherland ! throbbing to thee. 

As a translation never fails to mar the original, it is but fair to 
believe that the young Sigismond's verses deserved, in part at leas!, 
the applause he received : but when they were ended, and that, re- 
suming his flute, he again drew from it the sweet familiar notes so well 
known to every individual present except poor Edward, no word of 
praise followed them, but a tear stood trembling in every eye. 

Karl dashed the foolish tell-tale from his cheek, exclaiming, as he 
filled his glass with Rhenish wine, 

" Here's a health to our Fatherland ! and a health to thee, loo, thou 
dangerous minstrel of " Home ;" but remember that at the next feast I 
give upon this " bit" — this only bit that I can ever hope to call mine, 
I will not invite you to share it unless you promise and make oath, 
before you take your place at the banquet, that you will sing no strain 
that shall send our hearts aching back to the land which our eyes can 
never see more." 

Henrich had buried his face in his hands as they rested on his knees. 
Lolte's eyes seemed rooted in the earth, but her fair face bore no 
doubtful meaning. Steinmark's head sank upon his bosom ; but it was 
an altitude not unusual with him when indulging the thick-coming 
fancies drawn from all things known and unknown in heaven and on 
earth. Hermann, however, as usual, sat very near him, and was aware 
that that noble and gentle bosom heaved with some painful emotion. 
Fritz caught the expression of his brother's eye, and understood in a 
moment that the impression made by his friend's song was becoming 
painful to nearly the whole party. Moved probably more by the 
wish to put a slop to this than from any sensation of vehement gaiety, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 145 

he exclaimed, " We have sung our songs — now let us dance our 
dance, and Mr. Bligh may fancy himself in Fatherland at once. 
Mother, you shall waltz with me! Lolte shall lake Hen rich for her 
partner, and Karl must make theheslhe can of Hermann ; Sigismond 
shall play to us ; and my father and Mr. Bligh sit in judgment on the 
performances of the whole party." 

Fritz suiled the action to the word, and springing on his feet, he 
bounded in a genuine waltzing step to the place where his mother sat. 
But she shook her head, saying, "No, no ! Frilz, we can none of us 
waltz now. But come, boys, let us gather up the fragments of the 
feast and move homeward. Come, Lotle, love! The sun is gelling 
low, and Americans though we be, we may get a chill if we sit here 
much longer." 

The whole party was immediately put in action, and the bustle 
which ensued did much towards chasing the gloom that appeared to 
threaten them ; but the young baron was by no means insensible to 
the efleclhis song had produced, and as Ihey strolled slowly homeward, 
he could not resist the inclination he felt to ask Lolle if he were right 
in thinking that she had belrayed a more tender recollection of her 
native country than was likely to make her quite happy in her adopted 
one. 

" I hope you are quite wrong," she replied with a smile, which 
was, however, followed by a sigh as she added : " It is Henrich who 
has infected me wilh this vain longing for a home that can never 
again be mine. But this is folly, if it be not worse. I fear even that 
my father remarked the unreasonable feeling your song produced. 
Indeed, Herr Hochland, you must sing no more such songs to us." 

"Yet 1 would sing for ever," thought the young man, " could I 
so lure this matchless creature back to my native land." But he did 
not speak the thought, and the return of the party was much more si- 
lent and much less gay than their setting out. Frederick especially 
seemed to have lost his gentle, placid cheerfulness ; and though he 
continued to converse with Edward wilh the same warmth of kind- 
ness as before, the spirit of his conversation was fled. The delicate- 
minded and sensitive Edward, though his knowledge of German was 
very imperfect, had caught and understood the feeling which had 
touched the hearts of the exiles while listening to the minstrelsy of 
their countryman ; but he was far from conceiving how deeply the 
witnessing this feeling in his children had affected the heart of 
Frederick. 

Steinmark had brought his family from Germany to America be- 
cause he believed it to be the best thing he could do for them ; and 
though some natural yearnings towards his native land had occasion- 
ally thrown a shade of melancholy over his solitary musings, he had 

10 



146 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

never conceived the idea that such meditations were shared by his 
light-hearted children. Still less did he imagine that these recollec- 
tions, which he had never permitted himself to allude to, should, not- 
withstanding his caution, be the subject of deep and enduring regret 
to them all. Though Frederick Steinmark was more capable than 
most men of combating his own feelings, he had no such power when 
encountering those of his children, and the discovery he had just 
made oppressed him heavily, and he longed to be alone. Neverthe- 
less, he remembered that it was some days since Edward had ven- 
tured to visit the poor prisoner, and he therefore detained him till, 
having seen the whole family safely established in the common sitting- 
room, he could take him safely to the loft, in which he was con- 
cealed. 

With cautious steps they threaded their way behind the outbuild- 
ings of the farm, and having entered an empty barn and secured the 
door behind them, they mounted the ladder that led to the little 
chamber above; but when they entered and looked round it, its sable 
tenant was no longer visible. Every hole and corner was examined, 
but in vain. However strange the fact appeared, it could not be 
doubted — Caesar was gone. 

"This is very strange, Bligh," said Steinmark; "so devotedly 
attached as this poor fellow appeared to you, is it possible that he 
should thus leave the asylum in which you had placed him without 
letting you know his intention?" 

"It is not possible/' replied Edward in a voice of great emotion. 
"The poor fellow has been traced and seized. Unhappy boy! his 
fate will be dreadful I" 

"But surely, if this were the case, some of the people about the 
farm must have known it, Edward? — Remember that though it is 
just possible he might have been traced to the premises, it is not so 
that his pursuers should so exactly know where to find him as to 
render all search needless."' 

"But did they not choose their time well? Your whole family 
absent — your servants occupied at their mid-day meal perhaps. Alas ! 
Mr. Steinmark, I have not a shadow of hope or doubt but that he is 

in the hands of his ferocious and remorseless enemies My poor 

Csesar !" 

Steinmark answered not, but carefully examined the rough cham- 
ber in which they stood. 

" It was here," he said at length, " that I always found him seated 
when I made my nightly visit to him : it was here I left him last 
night, a little after ten o'clock. He was in the habit, remember, of 
constantly employing the hours of his captivity either in reading the 
books I left with him, or in making the little wicker-baskets for 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAVV. 147 

which he cut and prepared the materials with his knife. Had he been 
so employed when taken, should we not find some symptoms of the 
sudden interruption? But observe — here are the four volumes that 
I lent him, put carefully together upon this rafter ; and there is nei- 
ther knife, basket, chip, nor stick of any kind, to indicate that he was 
broken in upon during the hours of light and occupation. Observe, 
too, that there is no remnant of the food I brought him ; and there 
was more than he would have eaten till the twenty-four hours were 
past. In short, improbable as it may appear, I am persuaded that 
Caesar took his voluntary departure in the course of last night; and 
that, unless he encounters some mischance, we shall probably find 
him here again as unexpectedly as we have lost him." 

" He is most madly rash, then," replied Edward, who, while almost 
convinced by the reasonings of Steinmark, found but little to console 
him in admitting the result. " They tell me that dogs are used to 
hunt down the unhappy runaways ; and if so, the poor fellow's power 
of gliding on his belly, like a snake among the bushes, will not long 
avail him. But it is useless to meditate upon the dangers into which 

he may have thrown himself. I cannot thank you, sir, 1 cannot 

thank you as I ought to do, for all your generous kindness to him 

and to me. Let me not longer detain you from your family. Fare- 
well !" 

"Stay, Edward !" exclaimed Steinmark, retaining the hand extend- 
ed to him. " Why should you leave us ? Caesar is gone, and therefore 
my roof is no longer a dangerous one to you. Return with me to the 
house, and after supper we will give you a gayer song than that with 
which the young traveller regaled us to-day." 

Nothing could so soon have restored the usually even spirits of Fre- 
derick Steinmark to their tone, as perceiving that Edward had need of 
cheering kindness to support him under the anxiety he felt for Cae- 
sar; but though poor Bligh felt to his heart's core the sincerity and 
benevolence of the invitation, and though there was something more 
at his heart, perhaps stronger still, which prompted him to accept 
it, he was conscious that such heavy sadness rested upon him as 
must render him more a burden than an acquisition to his new 
friends. There was not one of them, not excepting the young baron, 
who had not repeatedly during the day demonstrated the most cordial 
desire to make it pleasant to him ; and not an accent, not a movement, 
which testified this good-will, but had been felt and appreciated by 
its object : but poor Edward's very soul had been shaken by the emo- 
tions of this eventful day. He knew not what to make of the strange 
battling of contradictory impulses within him. Never till this day had 
he been addressed in a voice of kindness to which his own voice had 
not responded cheerfully : but when young Sigismond had courteously 

10" 



I4S LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

attempted to draw him into conversation, a something within him 
seemed to make him shrink from the frank and graceful young man 
almost with loathing. When Lolte spoke to him, and with her gentle, 
kindly smile sought to draw him into the family circle, the effect was 
stranger still. When she spoke to another, his life seemed to hang 
upon her accents ; when she looked at another, the light appeared to 
have passed from his eyes, and a deep shadow to overcast the spot on 
which he stood : but no sooner was he himself the object eilher of her 
words or her glances, than his presence of mind utterly failed him, 
and he no longer clearly knew what he did, nor what he said. It had 
been a day of torment and of pleasure such as he had never known ; 
but he had no strength to renew these overwhelming emotions, and 
after the hesitation of a moment, he answered : 

"God bless you, Mr.Sleinmark, for all your goodness ! but 

not now, not to-night : another lime, if you do not grow weary of me 
and my troubles, I will venture to come amongst you, — though I fear 
I can be but a kill-joy at any time." 

" You do not do us justice, Edward," returned Steinmark warmly, 
M If you esteemed me and mine as perfectly as we esteem you, it 
would be impossible for you to think that your sorrows were a burden 
that we would not one and all glady aid you to bear and to cure." 

" Nor do I doubt it, my dear and honoured friend ; but there is a 
weakness of spirit almost too lender to bear the touch of kindness. 
Forgive my wayward folly, and think me not ungrateful !" 

" Do not fear it, Edward You are hardly fit for this working- 
day world, my friend ; but could I shape your destiny, trust me, it 
should be such as to soothe, and not wound your nature. Good night? 
and remember, the sooner we see you again, the more welcome you 
will be." 

Frederick Steinmark then returned into the house, and Edward 
Bligh took the winding path through the forest that led towards his 
home. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The day after old Juno had succeeded in rescuing Phebe from the 
immediate vengeance of Whillaw, »l happened, while he and his pa- 
tron Colonel Dart were comfortably sealed at breakfast, amicahly 
discoursingupon the number of stripes that a female slave might safely 
receive without permanent injury to herself or her fulure progeny, Ihey 
were startled by the sudden appearance of the old woman and her 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 119 

bamboo, standing under the flowery portico, within a foot of the 
window at which thoy sat. 

11 What the devil brings her here?" muttered the colonel to his 
confidential clerk. But at the same instant he rose from his chair, and 
presenting her with a fresh-bultered roll delicately spread with fine 
honey— a morsel just prepared for his own eating — he addressed her 
coaxingly with. " Well now, good Juno, you know that you are al- 
ways welcome, come when you will. What news stirring, Juno? — 
what news?" 

This queer mixture of fraud, fun, and feeling, never enjoyed herself 
more than when she saw the savage, blood-thirsty Colonel Dart fawn- 
ing upon her as gently as a lamb when bleating to its mother for food. 
She knew— for her comfort — that she had been his torment and his 
torture for the fifteen years that he had possessed the estate, making 
him dream by night and meditate by day on plots, poisonings, and as- 
sassinations without end. 

" May the pretty spirits that are chirping round old Juno keep the 
master of all from harm!" she replied, accepting the dainty morsel ; 
and sealing herself deliberately on the wooden pediment of the iron 
column which supported the roof the porlico, she began to eat it 
without appearing to pay the least attention to the still standing colo- 
nel or his confidential clerk, who-had also arisen from his chair with 
considerable anxiety to hear what she had to say. 

The more mysleriously impertinent old Juno was, the more submis- 
sive and tractable did the colonel invariably become ; and when hav- 
ing about half eaten her roll, she raised her eyes and her bamboo, 
and said, as if addressing some object above her head, " Coffee ! coffee! 
coffee !" the zealous believer seized hastily on the silver biggen, ex- 
claiming as he began to pour out the fragrant contents : 

" Sugar and cream, Whitlaw ! D — n your eyes! can't you give 
me the sugar and cream ?" 



*c l 



Voice of truth, 
The heart of ruth 
Deserves to hear 
Distinct and clear,' 



said Juno, solemnly and complacently, as she received her cup of coffee; 
and having drunk it without any symptom of haste, and finished eat- 
ing her roll with the same steady equanimity, she rose from her seat, 
and standing in her ordinary altitude, with her two hands crossed, 
and resting on the top of her bamboo, she said: "Now, masler of 
many slaves, and faithful servant of the powers of air, listen to Juno. 
Deep and terrible are the thoughts that are rolling at this moment 
through the souls of Louisianian slaves, — dark as their skin, and 
frightful as their chains. Juno knows all ; and had you met her with 



150 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

a surly oath, as once in days of yore, when she came to show you that 
the bright fountain which rose and sparkled as if proud to meet your 
wants — when she came in the darkness of night to tell you that foun- 
tain was poisoned, — had you met her now as you did then, a dozen 
negro fists should be playing on your windpipe ere Juno would have 
told you one word of the matter. 

Colonel Dart turned very pale, and Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw 
found out a glass of rum and swallowed it. 

"Ay, ay, young master," said Juno, with a smile that came direct 
from her heart, where her spirit was laughing merrily, "that rum is 
cheering, but the cane that gave it is watered, if the poet say true, 
with negro tears. — What then? " she continued, pointing her wand to- 
wards the sky, and appearing to aim it first at one and then at another of 
the airy beings she always appeared to see about her, — " What then? 
«— — Power is power, and strength is strength ; and the low must fall 
lower, and the high must mount higher, before all is done. You are 
high, Colonel Dart — you are very high, powerful, mighty, and greatly 
to be considered by slaves and freemen both. And you!" she con- 
tinued wildly, fixing her eyes with a look of phrenzy on Whitlaw, and 
then bursting forth into croaking song, — 

" You too are high, high ! 
But methinks I can spy, 
That yet ere you die, 
You will mount still, and fly 
'Twixt the earth and the sky. 
Till the welkin shall ring merrily, merrily!" 

" What does she mean, Whitlaw ? " said the colonel, in an accent 
that denoted both a puzzled state of mind and an anxious spirit. 

"It's hard to say justly, colonel," answered his confidential clerk, 
"she's so unaccountable queer; but I guess," he continued, as the 
bumper of rum strengthened and cheered the pulsations of his heart, 
— " I guess that she means I shall come to riches and power before I 
die." 

"I dont know," said the colonel doubtingly ; "I expect there's 
two " 

" Whew ! whew ! " whistled the old woman shrilly through a hole 
that was pierced in her bamboo. "Hist, hist, hist ! — here they come, 
here they come ! 

" Could you see them and hear ! 

Now they're far now they're near ! 

They have tidings to tell, 
Newly whisper'd in hell ! 

Ay! 1 hear what you say ; 

But I am but weak clay, 
And must pause ere I dare 
These dire Saorrors declare." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 151 

Her voice sunk as she pronounced the last words, and she appeared 
completely exhausted. 

" Give her rum, Whitlaw! " cried the colonel, trembling too vio- 
lently to do it himself. "Why the devil, sir, can't you give her a 
glass of rum ? " 

Whitlaw obeyed, and the old woman eagerly swallowed the cordial. 

" It is well ! " she cried, apparently reviving. " That was a lucky 
thought; or Juno might have perished ere her noble master got his 
warning." 

" What warning, Juno?" said the colonel in very gentle accents, and 
evidently relieved at hearing his tormentor speak in tones of less im- 
mediate inspiration. ''Come in, and sit down comfortably, Juno; 
and, in God's name, tell me what you have got to say." 

" In God's name, massa? No, no, no, no, — not in God's name ! 

Please, massa, not in God's name ! In the name of Juno's 

spirits, — in the name of the green birds that be visible, and the birds 
of golden light that be not — save only to old Juno ; — in the name of 
these say, master — in the name of these, and Juno will tell you all ! " 

" In the name of what you wi!l, woman — in the name of the devil, 
if it must be so, — only tell me all you know." 

"The devil ? " said Juno, shaking her head, while a strangely ma- 
licious smile twinkled unobserved in her eyes. " The devil is the 
prince of darkness ; but, dark or light, he is a prince, so 'tis fitting to 
speak of him with respect ; 'cause I was told in my youth that not 
even the great Washington could release us from his parliament. And 
so, massa," she added, resuming her whining negro tone, "please to 
say, in the name of Juno's spirits." 

Whitlaw stamped (aside) with his feet; but the colonel deliberately 
uttered, " In the name of your spirits, Juno, tell me what you have 
heard respecting the Louisianian slaves." 

As if propitiated by this obedience, the old woman began without 
farther grimace to explain in good intelligible English the object of her 
visit. 

" It matters little, master, and that you know by this time, where 
Juno gets her knowledge. How many a time have you gone to the 
right at my bidding, when if you had gone to the left, your life would 
have paid for your disobedience 1 And how often at dead of night have 
I brought you tidings of the death of a slave, who if he had lived four- 
and-twenty hours longer, would have laid low the head of him who is 
master of all ! Is not this true, Colonel Dart? — is not this true as the 
spirits of the air are true ?" 

" I should be ungrateful to deny it, good Juno," replied the docile 
coward: " and you won't deny, will you, that I have always been 
grateful for your watching over me? I do believe, Juno, that you have 



152 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

found the way of sending many a rogue out of this world, who if he 
had remained in it, would have done my business for me, one way or 
another." 

" Ay, ay! it were best you did not doubt that, colonel, though you 
are master of all," replied the old woman, with another comical twinkle 
of her eyes. " But listen! Time presses; and the present moment lost, 
the future will never restore it. There is at this hour in Orleans a 
dark and dreadful conspiracy, which if not smothered before it sees the 
light, will leave no white man alive within the State. I am no traitress, 
mark me! I would not have even you think that; though I know," 
continued the arlful old woman, " that your generosity might find an 
excuse for it if I were. But I am no traitress; no one has trusted me 
— at least no earthly one has trusted me, and therefore I betray none. 
You, my master, must remain with your own ; the taint has not yet 
reached them, and at the present moment you are safe. But this young 
man here, whom you have made to understand your wanls and wishes, 
this young master Whillaw, whose zeal is equal to your own, and who 
looks forward, as all noble spirits should do, to obtain an exalted si- 
tuation before he dies, — let him go to New Orleans. Spare not your 
purse, Colonel Dart, or your blood may flow instead of your dollars : 
let this young man set off lo-morrow for New Orleans. When arrived 
there, I will take care that it shall be given him to know what he is to 
do. Will you do this, master, on the strength of Juno's word?" 

" What say you, Whillaw?" said the colonel, turning to him. " It 
is certainly no joke to hear of such goings on, so near, and yet to know 
so devilish lilile about it. Are you up to this, my boy? Say yes, and 
by G — I'll roll out as many dollars as you can spend." 

The heart of Whillaw beat high. The idea of a trip fo New Orleans, 
with plenty of money to spend, seemed to his imagination like a glimpse 
at paradise; but, with his wonted discretion, he took care that no 
symptom of this feeling should appear on his countenance. 

" I expect, colonel," he replied sedately, " that I shall be after doing 
whatever you wish in Ihis mailer; but it's no joke neither, I guess, to 
run one's head into such a wasp's nest as New Orleans must be at this 
present, if all she says is true." 

Juno watched his countenance keenly as he spoke ; and her eye, long 
accustomed to read that index of men's thoughts ever to be found in 
their faces by those who know how lo look for it, delected his extreme 
satisfaction under the mask of indifference he tried to put on. 

t; Does your heart fail you, Master Whillaw? If it does, say so. 
But do not pretend lo doubt the word of Juno. There is no need for 
you lo go lo New Orleans, Master Whillaw — I will find another lo do 
the work. 

*« No, no, good Juno," said the young man promptly; " it is my 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 153 

duty to do whatever the colonel wants done; and if New Orleans was 
on fire from end to end, I'm the man that would walk, through it at his 
bidding. So I'm ready to start, colonel, to-morrow, or to-day either 
if you like it belter." 

" You're the man for these times, Whitlaw, and none but you — that's 
a fact. I calculate that to-morrow will do, Juno? The Tecumsah 
goes down to-morrow, I know; and that's the steamer I support, — 
the caplain keeps me in cigars. But you're sure he'll know what to do 
when he gels there, Juno?" 

11 Did Juno ever promise to give you a warning and fail? Tell me 
that, master." 

11 Never, my good friend — never. Another glass of rum, Juno, and 
then be off — I've lots of letters to write." 

Juno look the offered glass in silence, and then retreating by the 
window at which she had entered, and giving a sort of farewell wave 
with her wand, she disappeared. 

For some minutes after her departure the colonel and his confidential 
clerk sat opposite to each other in silence, both desirous to escape 
making the first observation upon the extraordinary visit they had re- 
ceived. But the perseverance of Whitlaw beat the colonel's palience, 
and he broke out with sundry contradictory exclamations. " Cursed 
witch ! — where the devil could she learn all this? But I never caught 
her out in tricking me yet. — I say, Whitlaw, we should be stumped 
considerable if we found out, after all, 'twas but a flam — hey ?" 

Whitlaw trembled for his visit to that land of promise New Orleans, 
and all the glorious joys that the colonel's dollars would procure him 
there. In answer therefore to this appeal, he shook his head, and said 
with much solemnity, " Colonel Dart, that woman is of no common 
breed — I have witnessed her power and her fore-knowledge before to- 
day. This expedition that she advises is not without peril ; but peril 
must be stood to in lime of need. You've behaved nobly by me, and 
let me be flogged like a nigger if I show a while feather in the matter! 
Let us take the witch at her word, colonel, and do her bidding now if 
we never do it again. God help me ! but it makes one's blood run cold 
to hear her! How soon did she say we should all be murdered in 
our beds if we neglected the warning?" 

Whitlaw here touched the right string. " Hold your tongue, in 
the devil's name!" cried the colonel pettishly, while a cold shiver ran 
through his limbs. " What's the use, Whitlaw, of sitting here 
croaking over her d — d news, when you've got to get your plunder 
together, and I've so many letters to write to them as I shall want you 
to question?— besides counting the dollars out. The queer hag told 
me not to spare— and she's right there too, — what's a bag of dollars 
compared to one's life?" 



154 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

This was a sentiment in which Mr. Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw 
agreed most cordially; but' it was with his usual prudence that he 
indicated this— only shrugging his shoulders, and again shaking his 
head very solemnly. 

Notwithstanding his well-placed confidence on the liberality of the 
terrified colonel, Whitlaw thought that it would be extremely wrong 
to miss such an opportunity of getting a little ready cash from his very 
prosperous father; he had also some curiosity to hear a little gossip 
about Lotte from Aunt Cli ; so telling his patron that he had business 
with his father which must be attended to before he set off, he took his 
leave of him, and mounting the horse kept for his use, proceeded im- 
mediately to Mount Etna. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The evidently increasing wealth of old Whitlaw was -by no means 
overlooked by his careful son, who, notwithstanding the luxury and 
dignity in which he lived as the acknowledged favourite of his patron, 
had lately thought it worth his while occasionally to pay his compli- 
ments at Mount Etna. Neither was his childish attachment to his 
adoring Aunt Clio altogether worn out. 

Whether it were that, strong as appearances seemed against it, our 
hero really had some slight mixture of vulgar human feelings at his 
heart, or that the effect was produced solely by the gratification which 
even poor Clio's simple admiration afforded his vanity, it is certain 
that he always did say, "Where's Aunt Cli?" within five minutes 
after he had seated himself on the fine horse-hair sofa in his step- 
mother's grand keeping-room. To Clio the arrival of her Jonathan 
Jefferson was like sunshine after long rain, or rain after long sunshine, 
or any other most longed-for visitation. 

The entire aspect of Mount Etna was changed since first the Whit- 
law family unpacked themselves and their plunder before the door of 
the little mansion. By gradual and regularly increasing growth, this 
very moderate-sized tenement was become a stately, staring store, with 
a substantial house attached to it. There certainly was not any in- 
dividual in the family at all aware of the fact, though fact it was, that 
poor Clio was in reality the mainspring of this prosperity. The niggers 
that Mrs. Whitlaw brought with her as her marriage portion certainly 
contributed to the rapid clearing of the ground; but it was Clio's un- 
wearied hands that converted into prime bacon the herds of well- 
fattened hogs fed on the corn which grew there. If it was the im- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 155 

perious Whitlaw himself who contrived to make such capital ready- 
money bargains for Havannah cigars at New Orleans that he could 
undersell all Natchez, it was Clio who took care that there should be 
no crumbling or crushing among them till the very last of every suc- 
cessive batch was sold. It was Clio who roasted the coffee belter 
than ever coffee was roasted before, with which she supplied all the 
retail customers for many a mile round ; for ''who would not walk 
a spell more, to have coffee done fixed so slick as Clio's?" In a word, 
there was no part of Mr. Jonathan Whitlaw's extensive retail concern 
which did not benefit by the watchful eye, the active hand, and the 
unwearied patient industry of Clio. In return, she was lodged, fed, 
and clothed ; and what, as Mrs. Whitlaw observed, could any human 
want more?" 

As Jonathan Jefferson approached the paternal dwelling, he per- 
ceived his Aunt Cli in the act of lugging out, with great difficulty, a 
vast tub of "prime chewing tobacco," from amidst many other heavy 
concerns piled up beside the door. Some men, under such circum- 
stances, might have stepped forward to help her, and he could easily 
have done by one slight effort what it cost her many to achieve ; but 
young Whitlaw reasoned differently. He was himself exceedingly 
well-dressed, and had perfectly the air of a man of first-rate Natchez 
fashion, whereas his Aunt Cli really looked as if she had been hard at 
work since sunrise ; so he turned off, before her eyes, which were 
steadfastly fixed upon the chewing tobacco, had caught a glimpse of 
what they best loved to look upon, and skirting round a good-sized 
garden that spread before the whole front of the house, excepting the 
always open store, he made good his entry through a covered porch 
to the north, which led into Mrs. Whitlaw' s best parlour. 

The lady was occupied there in clear-starching some of her own par- 
ticularly favourite caps and other finery; but the employment was re- 
deemed from every appearance of degrading industry by the presence 
of two slaves. One of these, a young girl of fourteen, was endeavour- 
ing with all her heart and soul to content her lean and slippered liege 
lady by clapping, as it is technically called, a lace veil, the clearness 
and beauty of which altogether depended, as Mrs. Whitlaw said, upon 
the force and rapidity with which " the nasty, lazy, nigger smut" per- 
formed the operation ; and " Quicker, harder, can't you? you beastly, 
nigger idiot, you!" rang in the trembling girl's ears, as a prologue to 
the beating she knew she should get if she did not immediately display 
considerably more skill and strength than she possessed. 

The other slave was a little girl of about eight, who, while holding 
a basin of starch with nervous firmness between, her two little hands, 
stood with her eyes anxiously fixed upon her sister, whose abortive ef- 



156 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

forts in the mystery of clear-starching seemed so likely to bring her to 
sorrow and shame. 

"My! — Jonathan J effe rso n ! is that you?" exclaimed the lady, 
changing her tone from scolding to coaxing : for, having no offspring of 
her own, Mrs. Whitlaw was exceedingly proud of her elegant step-son; 
and as he by no means overwhelmed her with his company, she always 
welcomed him in the most flattering manner imaginable. 

''Morning, mother," returned the young man. "Where's Aunt 
Cli r 

We have already seen that Jonathan Jefferson knew perfectly well 
where Aunt Cli was ; but the phrase was always understood to mean, 
V bring her in directly." 

" Oh ! for sure you shall see her in no time. Jericho bob ! what a 
pretty waistcoat (hat is! Why should not my Mr. Whitlaw wear 
something like that now? I must say, that considering I was an 
heiress, 1 do think Mr. Whillaw should be a little more of a beau : 
don't you think so, Jonathan Jefferson?" 

" Where's Aunt Cli ?" reiterated our hero, without taking any no- 
tice either of the compliment or the question. 

" W T hy can't you budge, you everlasting nigger, you, and fetch Miss 
Cli, instead of standing staring there, as if you had never seen a white 
man before?" 

This was addressed to the younger of the two girls, who, carefully 
setting down the basin she held, darted out of the room, as if right 
glad of the errand that dismissed her. 

"Well now, Jonathan Jefferson, I hope you have got some news 
for me. I do live in the woods, I guess, if ever woman did. Is it 
true that Miss Mapleton is going to be married to Squire Dickson? 
Why, he is old enough to be her grandfather." 

"Where's Aunt Cli?" was the only answer this civil attempt at 
conversation received. 

" My! — Isn't a nigger a born fool, Jonathan Jefferson? Go, you 
black idiot, and tell your sister Venus she shall be flogged at sundown, 
for not sending Miss Cli here; and go into the store yourself, you black 
beetle, and tell her who's here: that will bring her fast enough, Jona- 
than Jefferson. Leave go the veil, you clumsy beast, — that must be 
done all over again ; so there's three hours more clapping for your 
pretty while hands, Miss Lily." Here Mrs. Whillaw laughed a little 
laugh peculiarly her own. " Mr. Whillaw dined at the Eagle to-day, 
Jonathan Jefferson ; but if they don't drink over common, he'll be back 
in a jiffy. There's tine junketings going on over at Sleinrnark's," 
continued the conversible lady. " Have you heard the news at Nat- 
chez ? " 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 15? 

"What news?" said'the young man sulkily. 
"My ! — Then you haven't heard it! Why they do say that the 
chit of a girl that does all (he work of the house, 'cause, as you well 
know, they won't afford themselves a single nigger,— they do say that 
she is going to be married to a lord — ay, Jonathan Jefferson, you may 
stare sure enough! — a crelur that I know has churned butter with her 
own hands likea right-down born blackamoor; but Miss Cli says that 
for certain it is so." 

" Did the girl tell her so?" said our hero, colouring. 
'* I don't know exactly for that ; but there have been people unac- 
countable in the store, who all declare, Miss Cli says, that they know it 
for certain truth." 

"D d lies, for all that," said young Whillaw. " Have they 

been silling abrood upon cuckoo's rotten eggs, and so hatched a lord?" 
"Oh! as for having the lord there, that's not the difficulty, for 
there he is sure enough, a most unaccountable beauly of a man, for I've 
see'd him myself. But who'll go to believe, Jonathan Jeilerson, that 
a girl what never had a nigger to wait upon her, but did slave's work 
herself, should be made a wife of by such a person as that? Believe 
it who will, I won't." 

"And pray where did Ibis lord come from? Tis but rare one 
hears of any of the kind at New Orleans; and 'tis likely, to be sure, 
that one should be found out in the woods at Reichland ! Flam — 
— cursed, lying flam 1" 

" That's just your 'cuteness, Jonathan Jefferson. I was despe- 
rately tickled myself at the notion ; and now I hear you, I see straight 
through it at once." 

At this moment the good Clio entered ; and though she had for 
some lime past been schooled into the necessity of not hugging and 
kissing her darling, her affectionate heart nevertheless found means of 
showing how greatly she loved him. 

"My boy ! my darling boy !" she exclaimed as she burst into the 
room with her hands clasped firmly together, as if to prevent their 
following their natural impulse to inclose his neck; " if he arn't more 
beautiful than ever! W^hy, Jonathan — why for arn't you President 
already ? Don't he look grand, sister Whitlaw ?" 

The youth condescended to smile at the raptures of his aunt, and 
even ventured lo shake hands wilh her; a familiarity in which he 
rarely indulged since his residence at Paradise Plantation, except wilh 
very distinguished planters, and their while sons and daughters. 

The unwonted kindness quite overset poor Clio, making her forget 
all the teaching she had received, and alt her good resolutions to obey 
that slernesl of injunctions, never again to kiss her boy. She caught 
the hand he extended between both her own, and covered it with 



158 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

kisses ; sobbing out as she did so, " Forgive me, forgive me, my bless- 
ing, this one time, — only this one time ! Did ever eyes behold such a 
beauty, hands and all ?" 

" Don't be a fool, Aunt Cli," said the object of this lender love, 
** but step out for a spell with me into the garden : I want to talk 
to you." 

"God bless your dear tongue for saying it, Jonathan! But the 
store, darling ! what will father say if the store's left? 'Tis unac- 
countable the custom we gets, Jonathan, and it must be minded." 

" Then let's sit down just where father smokes, in full sight of it; 
and if the folks come, why you must go, that's a fact, Aunt Cli. — 
Well now," he continued, as soon as they had reached the smoking 
retreat of Whitlaw senior, which was situated in a corner of the garden 
that commanded a full view of the entrance to the store, as well as 
the approach to it, — " Well now, Aunt Cli, I want you to tell me 
what itis that foolish woman, that stepmother of mine, has got into her 
head about Lotte Steinmark being married to a lord. It's all stuff, 
isn't it, Aunt Cli?" 

" I thought you had clean forgot Lotte altogether, my darling," said 
Clio in a tone of anxiety. 

" Forget her! what do you mean ? You don't fancy I care for the 
girl, do you ? Not I, a copper, upon my soul. 'Twas only for the 
sake of hearing some of your country news that I asked." 

" Thai's right, then, Jonathan dear. Well, then, Til tell you all 
about it. You remember the eldest son, don't you, Jonathan ? you must 
remember Fritz? Well, you know, he's been a good spell at Phila- 
delphy, making, they do say, an accountable sight of money. Weil, 
he made friends there with a lord — a real lord from over the sea, and 
so he brought him home to Reichland with him, and so he fell right 
down in love with Lotte, — no wonder that, Jonathan, was it? — and 
so they are to be married right away ; and the worst of all is, that 
pretty Lotte is to go away over Ihe sea, and I shall never see her sweet 
face again." 

" So then it's true, is it?" 

"Yes, Jonathan, quite true ; and I should be joyful at her being 
made so grand, if it wasn't for the never seeing her again." 

" I wish I had the settling them, one and all," said young Whitlaw T , 
muttering through his teeth. 

"What d'ye say, Jonathan dear?" inquired Clio innocently. 

"No matter, Aunt Clio. What's this lord like? have you seen 
him?" 

" Yes, sure have I. They came, I don't know how many of them, 
and he along, to buy notions at our store ; and one of the nigger girls 
told sister Whitlaw, and she corned herself into the store to have a look 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 150 

at him, andlhat's what she don't do twice in a year. Howsomever, 
she said she was paid that time anyhow, for she said the young lord 
was a glory to look at." 

"What everlasting stuff you do talk, Aunt Cli!" cried the young 
man, rising from his seat. M What do you know about lords? Will 
he buy the gal a nigger to slave it for her? Beggarly set the whole 
of 'em! I wouldn't give a levy a dozen for the best lords they're 
likely to pick up! A likely story ! — an oversea lord come to Louisiana, 
and choose a wife from a house where there isn't a slave kept ! I've 
no great faith in lords from foreign parts, but I expect they arn't alto- 
gether so mean as that neither." 

"Well now, Jonathan dear, I calculate you know better than I do 
about all things, so I dare say you are right, and we shall keep our 
pretty Lotte after all. What would I give, Jonathan, if you would 
make up your mind to marry her yourself !" 

" How your head does run upon marrying ! But that's always the 
way with old maids!" 

A short pause succeeded, which was broken by Jonathan's saying, 

" How's the cash-box, Aunt Cli? I must have some money, that's 
a fact. I'm going a journey to New Orlines, and I shall be stumped 
outright if father won't come down with a little of the ready." 

" To be sure he will, my darling ; but you know, Jonathan, 'tis he's 
got the money, and he's away to the Eagle. But art thee going to 
New Orlines, Jonathan? My — ! what a sight you will know by time 
you're as old as me! — -And how many weeks will it be afore you set 
out? — not till the fever time's over, mind that, Jonathan." 

" A fig for the fever, Aunt Cli ! — business is business, — and I'm off 
for Orlines to-morrow. So send one of your black varment to the Eagle, 
and tell the old one he's wanted." 

" But, Jonathan, maybe his dander will be up if we sends after him 
that fashion ; and that's no way to get at the dollars. Maybe, darling, 
you'd best be going over to the Eagle yourself; and he'll be proud, I'm 
thinking, to see you among all the people, looking so grand, like as 
you do, my beauty. I guess he'll never have the heart to refuse you 
if you ask, then." 

Young Jonathan appeared to approve the suggestion, and customers 
approaching the store at the moment, the aunt and nephew parted ; she 
bustling up to perform her wonted duty, and he striding off by a short 
cut across the grounds to make an experiment upon his father's heart 
and purse. 

He had just reached the limit of the Mount Etna land, and was in 
the act of stepping over the high zig-zag fence which surrounded it, 
when Lotte Steinmark, Henrich, and the Baron Hochland appeared 
in sight. They were approaching the spot where he stood, and a mixed 



160 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

feeling of curiosity and insolence induced him to remain there till they 
came up, instead of crossing the road in the direction in which he was 
going. 

His intention at first was simply to give the parly a "good stare ;" 
but Lolle looked so very lovely as she drew near, that almost involun- 
tarily he walked up to them, and touching his hat, said, " Good af- 
ternoon to you, Miss Lolle." 

The young baron, from habitual good breeding, touched his hat in 
return ; but Henrich, on whose arm his sister was leaning, hurried for- 
ward without taking any notice of the salutation. Lolle's beautiful 
colour deepened and mounted to her temples; but she bowed, though 
very slightly, and, without speaking, obeyed the impulse of her brother 
and walked on. 

Whillaw slood immovable for several minutes, watching their pro- 
gress, and then exclaimed in a sort of growling whisper, 

"Curses light upon them all ! — If I could but live to be revenged 
for their infernal insolence, I would be contented to die the hour 
after !" 

A mocking-bird that was perched on a tree by the road-side caught 
the cadence of the curse, and repeated it. Whillaw seized a stone and 
aimed it at the bird, but it missed him. A passionate oath burst from 
his lips as he pursued his way; but he soothed his spirit by a silent 
vow to this effect — that when he raised his hand to smite the Stein- 
mar Jc race, it should not he raised in vain. He then proceeded in 
search of his father, and having found him, contrived, by some of the 
means he had long successfully practised, to extract from him a por- 
tion of that hoarded wealth, the entire possession of which he looked 
forward to with equal confidence and impatience. Perhaps, 

" Malignant Fate sat by and smiled." 

But with this w r e have nothing to do at present : it is enough for us to 
know, that having concluded his business in a very satisfactory manner, 
Mr. Jonathan Jefferson Whillaw took a hasty leave of the ladies of the 
establishment, and mounting his horse, returned in excellent spirits Jo 
Paradise Plantation. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

At an early hour of the afternoon on the following day, the noble 
Tccumseh sleam-boal hove-to beneath the bluff of Natchez. Before 
the different ceremonies of wooding, getting bread, milk, eggs, butter, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHiTLAW. 1G1 

chickens, and turkeys aboard, was completed, Whillaw was seen gaily 
approaching the landing-place, followed by two of Colonel Dart's 
negroes carrying his baggage. 

A stunted juniper grows upon the top of a little grassy knoll that 
rises close behind the handsomely ranged cords of wood which stand 
ever ready for loading beside the wharf. Within the shelter and the 
shade of this low tree sat Juno. She silently walched the approach of 
Whillaw to the water's edge; and when, after seeing his luggage in, 
he stepped on board himself, she rose to her feet as if her business 
were finished and she meant to depart. But some few minutes elapsed 
before the last stragglers arrived, and during this time the old woman 
lingered on the green hill's side, mounting now and then by a step at a 
lime, but taken backwards, with her eyes still fixed on the Tecumseh. 
At length the paddles began to play, a burst of black smoke covered 
the retreat of the hissing steam now sent to do its duly, and the vast 
fabric glided away from the bank. Juno waved her bamboo in the 
air as if to bid it farewell ; then turning away from the river, she 
slowly mounted the steep ascent that led to Natchez. 

While Whillaw, in high spirits, and resolving numberless schemes 
of profit and of pleasure, is borne gaily and rapidly along towards New 
Orleans, we must retrograde a little, in order to trace old Juno through 
a few of her recent manoeuvres, that we may be able to comprehend 
the events to which they ultimately led. 

It must be remembered that the scene at Colonel Dart's breakfast- 
lable, though recorded only in the last chapter, occurred the morning 
after Juno's first introduction to the reader, when her unexpected ap- 
pearance at the door of Peggy's hut put a stop to the outrage about to be 
perpetrated on the unhappy Piiebe. 

A few hours only before her well-timed entrance there, she had ar- 
rived on the deck of a steam-boat from New Orleans, which she had 
just visited on one of the wild intriguing schemes with which she 
perpetually amused herself, and mystified her master. But upon this 
occasion, however, it must be confessed, that feelings of good-nature 
and kindness were blended with her master passion for trickery and 
influence. 

It may be necessary to remark, that Juno's authority among her 
own race was by no means confined to her five hundred comrades on 
Paradise Plantation. Her singular education and acquirements, together 
with her long residence at Orleans, and the station ^ihe highest amongst 
slaves) that she so repeatedly held there, had made her known and reve- 
renced throughout the whole black population. It was, moreover, well 
known among them that she was the progenitor of a while and beautiful 
free race in England ; and this gave her a degree of importance in their 

11 



169 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

eyes which added not a little to her extravagant assumption of dignity, 
while it certainly tended greatly to console her for all the sorrows and 
sufferings she had endured. 

Besides these traditional ciaims to respect, Juno by some means or 
other was always well furnished with money : she constantly lodged 
herself decently during her visits to New Orleans, and said nothing to 
contradict the idea which appeared to prevail among her old asso- 
ciates, that she had at length obtained her freedom. She had never 
found any difficulty, therefore, in keeping up an intercourse with 
several of the best-informed of the coloured population, giving them 
to understand, that it was of great importance to the well-being of 
the negroes in her own neighbourhood that all intelligence in any 
way connected with their race should be transmitted to her. 

The unchecked license for wandering where, when, and how she 
chose, which had long been tacitly accorded either to her supernatural 
pretensions or to her useless age, enabled her to go and to stay as far 
and as long as she liked ; and perhaps no one on the estate to which 
she belonged was more easily persuaded to believe that these wander- 
ings were connected with the behesls of some of her aerial acquaintance 
than Colonel Dart himself. On this point she did in truth " fool him 
to the lop of his bent;" often finding her way to and from New Or- 
leans, and then delivering to him in the shape of prophecy all that she 
picked up that was likely afterwards to reach him concerning any riots 
or evasions among the wretched multitude who groaned in chains within 
its precincts. 

It was in the good-natured hope of bringing together her young fa- 
vourite Phebe and the lover whose loss she so pathetically mourned, 
which had induced the old woman to make this last excursion to ^ew 
Orleans. She had long ago determined to save her protegee from the 
hateful pursuit of Whidaw, whenever it should appear necessary, by 
sending him off on a fool's errand in pursuit of news for his patron; 
but before she did this, she thought fit (o pay a visit (o Ca?sar, partly to 
ascertain whether he kept faith towards his early love as truly as poor 
Phebe to him, and partly to arrange with him the best mode of selling 
to work for the purpose of effecting for him a change of masters. She 
found the poor fellow quite as attached and as constant as Phebe de- 
scribed him to be, and ready on his part to do whatever his good angel 
Juno directed. Her orders were, that he should give gradual indica- 
tions of declining health and strength, which would beyond a!! doubt 
make his master anxious to pari with him, — the selling a sick slave 
being a favourite species of jockeyship among planters; and, mean- 
while, it was her intention to inform her own master that his safety 
depended on the purchase of a certain sickly slave named Caesar, who 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 16? 

if once in his possession and sellled on the property, would, for certain 
reasons that she was forbidden to mention, prevent any conspiracy 
from ever touching his life or property. 

All this was very cleverly arranged between the old woman and the 
young lover on the fust day that she made her way into the factory 
where he was employee! ; and it is highly probable that her scheme 
would have answered completely, had not the unfortunate young man, 
on the day following this visit, been delected in the act of teaching a 
brother slave to read. 

It was but for one short instant after this detection, and that a very 
dangerous one, that Juno found means of speaking to him. She had 
then uttered the words "Run! — Natchez way:" — a piece of advice 
which he speedily followed. His actual arrival in the forest, however, 
was for some lime unknown to her, or she would probably have been 
able to afford him a shelter both more lo his taste and more perfectly 
secure than the loft of Frederick Steinmark. 

Though thus sadly defeated in her project of bringing the lovers to- 
gether as the property of one owner, she persevered in her resolution 
of sending Whitlaw off, little doubting that a short residence at New 
Orleans would cause him to forget the black beauty of Paradise Plan- 
tation. How well she succeeded in bringing this about we have al- 
ready seen. 

No sooner had his confidential clerk left him, than Colonel Dart, 
more lhan ever lerrified by the predictions of his sable prophetess, sum- 
moned three of the white overseers, in whom he Ihoughlhe could most 
confide, and promised to give each of them a dollar a night provided 
they would undertake in turn to patrol the negro villages and the 
forest adjoining during the hours of darkness, and bring him tidings 
in the morning if any movement appeared among the black people. 

No sooner had Juno returned from the wharf at Natchez, which she 
had visited for the satisfaction of knowing with certainty that the con- 
fidential clerk had departed, lhan she heard of this precaution taken by 
the nervous colonel. It would, for very excellent reasons, have been 
extremely inconvenient lo her, had it been attended to in the manner 
he expected : but Juno, who knew the character and conscience of 
every man and woman on the estate considerably belter than they 
did themselves, felt tolerably well assured that those trusted and chosen 
for the watch would content themselves with spreading the alarm, and 
draw but lillle upon their downy slumbers for the protection of the 
much less'certain repose of Colonel Dart. 

The old woman, amongst many other general conclusions to which 
her keen observation had brought her, always took it for granted that 
a man's tenderness towards himself was in exact proportion to his in- 



16 i LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

difference towards others. When she remarked an overseer more 
careless than ordinary about the accommodation of the gang under his 
charge, she felt sure that he was particularly well surrounded with snug 
comforts at home. If he lightly ordered punishment, or looked on 
with apathy while it was inflicted, she was convinced that he was well- 
furnished with precautions and consolations for all the aches and pains 
that flesh is heir lo. But if it happened that she marked a fiendish 
pleasure gleam from the eye while watching the writhing of the victim 
under torture, then no shadow of doubt was left upon her mind that 
a species of self-worship, which guarded every avenue to pain, and 
abandoned every sense to gratification, would be found the only religion 
— but that carried to fanaticism — which possessed the soul. 

It was in consequence of these observations and convictions which 
resulted from them, that Juno fell persuaded there would be little to 
dread from the watchfulness of the persons selected by Colonel Dart. 
Nevertheless, in case either of the trio might commission a wife or child 
lo keep watch while he slept, she thought fit lo use her influence with 
the poor Christian people who attended Edward Bligh's Sabbath night's 
prayer, lo prevent their assembling round him on the following Sun- 
day. 

Slaving taken this precaution, and lain in wait at the place of meeting 
in order lo announce it lo the young preacher, she returned lo the lone 
hut she had been permitted to fabricate for her own especial use, and 
having carefully secured herself within it, raised a trap-door concealed 
beneath her bed, and gave liberty lo Phebe, who, for the greater part 
of every day since Whitlaw left her in the charge of Juno, had re- 
mained a prisoner in a subterraneous retreat, which, though wonderful 
both in size and accommodation considering how and by whom il was 
made, nevertheless afforded but a sorry habitation for so long a period. 
Joyfully and gratefully, however, had Phebe submitted lo it ; and when 
Juno announced that her imprisonment was at an end, her first impulse 
was not to rejoice in her recovered freedom, but to ask if ihere were 
no danger lhat it might throw her again into Ihe power of Whitlaw. 

1 ' No, no, deary — no, no," replied the old woman laughing heartily : 
"the pretty youth is steaming away towards New Orleans, where, 
if my prayers are heard, he will be fleeced at a gaming-table and shot 
in a brawl. But, at any rale, my little Phebe, you are clear of him : 
and if, when he comes back, he should take the same fancy into his head 
again, why then old Juno will send him scudding off farlher and wider 
slill — or never believe her more." 

"And Caesar, Juno?" said Phebe mournfully, "what can your 
skill do for him? Do you believe that he has taken your terrible advice 
and run away?" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAYV. 165 

-"I hope so — I hope so, girl. Terrible advice! — pretty gra- 
titude that, isn't it now? Are you not ashamed, Phebe, to speak to 
me so ?" 

44 My dear Juno ! do not be mad with me for (hat. Day and night, 
night and day since you told me, what can I have been about, think 
you, but fancying how it was with him"?" 

"Like enough, dear; I know what that means — I have had some- 
thing of the sort myself maybe in the days that are gone. But look 
you, Phebe, you must have trust in me. I won't tell you, as I do 
those idiot cowards at the house, that I and the dicky-birds sit in 
council together as to what will next come to pass — ha ! ha ! ha ! — Isn't 
that glorious? Isn't it worth while to live a slave for threescore years 
and ten, for the joy ol seeing the little colonel's lace pucker, and his 
bits of eyesslare, and his black teeth chatter, when I hold up my 
old bamboo and talk gibberish? ha! ha ! ha ! ha! — Oh, Phebe, that's 
something!" 

"No, Juno, no," replied Phebe, "you will not talk such stuff 
lo me: but if you know — alas! you cannot know anything about 
him." 

"Know?" said the old woman, musing: " in real truth, Phebe, 
I sometimes can hardly tell what I know and what I do not. I don't 
want to bamboozle you, my dear child, God is my witness, any more 
than I would want to bamboozle my own brain ; but I do think now 
and then that I know things that others don't." 

"And no wonder, Juno," replied the girl with great simplicity ; 
" for while other folks work, you look about and listen, — and that's 
the reason, I expect, that you know so much." 

"Partly, partly, Phebe — but that's notquileall neither. I don't justly 
know myself how it is; but often and often when I see a thing or hear a 
thing, I don't slop short at knowing just what that tells me, but, almost 
without thinking of it, on I go judging what must be after, as if the 
spirits I (ell of lo scare the colonel were in honest truth leaching me 
something that nobody else knows." 

"Thai is very strange," replied Phebe gravely. "Did you ever 
tell Master Edward that you had got such a fancy as that, Juno?" 

" Master Edward? ' — Juno shook her head. — " Master Edward is 
too good for this wicked world, Phebe, and very, very fit for a belter. 
But he is not Ihe man for explaining the meaning of fancies and wild 
thoughts; for, you need not lell his pretty sister, you know — but 
I expect, Phebe, that he has over many wild thoughts and fancies 
himself." 

"Oh, Juno 1 it is a sin lo say so!" exclaimed Phebe indignantly. 
" If sainls did come on earth in these days, for cerlain sure he would 
be^known for one of them. Why do you speak so, Juno ? " 



166 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

M For no ill will, or misdoubting the goodness of him ; but his eye 
is sometimes over bright, Phebe, — and then he is a trifle jealous, I 
guess, when he fancies that other folks know something he does not. 
But he is a good and a holy man, my child," added Juno in a con- 
ciliatory tone, for Phebe looked vexed and almost angry; " and don't 
think that I love you the less, girl, for being ready to quarrel with a 
new friend out of tender love and duty to an old one. — And now as to 
Caesar, and what I know of him. I know this much — and I'll just 
tell you as it comes, Phebe, to show you how it is that my old brain 
works. I know he loves black Phebe, for I looked in his eyes and 
all round about his mouth when he said it. I know that he listened to 
me as to a friend that could advise him in his need, for he never 
moved nor spoke ; but when I had finished my short say, he bowed 
his head in a way that told me he would obey me. So Caesar has run 
away, and is now somewhere in the forest round Natchez, hiding by 
day, and crawling out by night, to find out, if he can, Paradise Plan- 
tation and his Phebe." 

"Do you really believe that he is so near us?" cried Phebe, clasping 
her hands in ecstasy. " Oh, Juno! dear Juno! how can we manage 
to meet him?" 

"You have got some faith, then, in tbe old woman?" said thesybyl, 
laughing. " If you were white, now, and a slave-holder, my girl, I 
would say to you — 

Let me to the forest go, 
And listen to the winds that blow : 
What seems an idle breeze to thee 
Would utter precious truth to me ! 

Ha ! ha ! ha !— Oh, Phebe, it is such glory to see how a crippled old 
negro slave like me can make folk's hairsland on end by stuff like that ! 
— But as you, deary, are a black girl, and neither wicked nor a fool, 
I will tell you just plainly what I will do, and why. Wherever Caesar 
is, he must lie hid by day — that we know over-well, Phebe: but 
wherever he is, be sure he will creep out by night, — and be sure, too, 
it will be round and round just without our cleared grounds he'll be 
hovering ; for I told him the first time I spoke with him whereabouts 
we lay. Now he dare not come in, and you dare not go out: hut I, 
thanks to my wrinkles and my rhymes, may go, and come too, as I 
will. So you shall go home to your mother, and set her poor heart 
at rest, my good child ; and I will prowl night by night in the forest, 
with store of corn-cakes in my pouch, — for I guess, poor fellow, he 
must want food sadly ; and I'll wager my brain against the colonel's 
we shall have him here in three days." 

Phebe looked very much as if, good Christian as she was, she could 
have fallen on her kness to do homage before the witch-like figure of 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 167 

Juno; but, checking the impulse, she contented herself by throwing 
her arms round the old woman, and giving her a most cordial hug. 

"And may I go now, Juno? — broad daylight 'lis almost, — may I 
got now, do you think, straight away and cross the grounds, and in 
front of two overseers' lodges, and away home to mother's, without 
being stopped and questioned?" 

"And well, deary, if you are stopped and questioned, where's the 
harm? They'll say maybe, whether black or white, ' Where do you 
come from?' and you shall tell no lie, my child, — you shall just say, 
■ Those that locked me up have let me out' — and that's all. Now go, 
deary." 

"But if you find him, Juno?" 

"Why then I'll find you too, Phebe. I may send a green bird 
after you; * they are Juno's spirits,' you know, — ha! ha ! ha! Don't 
be afraid, my girl: when Caesar and I are together, you two shall 
not be long asunder." 

With this assurance Phebe left her, with a heart as light as any girl's 
could be who was hoping for a speedy meeting with her lover, and 
yet fearing that it might cost him dear, or that it might never, never 
be at all. 

Juno's predictions respecting what was likely to befall her on her 
way were as literally verified as if they had indeed been uttered under 
the immediate inspiration of prophecy. About a quarter of a mile 
from the sequestered nook in which the sibyl's hut was shellered, and 
just as she entered the first open field, she was met by Johnson, the 
fellow who attended Whillaw at his last fearful visit. Her blood ran 
cold at the sight of him. 

"Soh! Miss Lily!" he exclaimed, "here you are abroad again! 
Pray may I be so bold as to ask where you come from?" 

"Those that locked me up, have let me out," responded Phebe. 

He now laughed, snapped his fingers at her, and passed on, saying 
with a sneer, "You were in a terrible taking, you black smut! much 
you had to fear, to be sure !" 

Phebe pressed her clasped hands upon her heart and thanked God. 

The same question and the same answer were repeated three times 
during her walk ; but she reached her mother's hut in perfect safety, 
and the meeting that followed seemed to atone for all she had suffered. 
Peggy and the two little girls clung to her with such rapturous fond- 
ness, that sorrow, slavery, insults, and stripes were all forgotten, and 
in the happiness of being reunited they forgot that they wanted any 
other. 



168 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

Having dismissed the guest whose concealment had costlier much 
anxiety for several days past, Juno laid herself upon her bed of straw, 
determined, after her first nap should be over, (6 betake herself to the 
forest and wander about, with the noiseless step that was so peculiar to 
her, in the hope of coming across the path of Caesar. She did this for 
two nights in vain, but the third was more propitious; for scarcely 
had she got clear of the grounds, before she descried ihe object of her 
search, though she had nothing but the starlight to help her, and he loo 
w 7 as playing bo-peep, from behind a mass of tangled bushes, with a 
movement as noiseless as her own. It really seemed to be an instinct 
that led the old woman to slop short before this idenlical bush, and 
which also made Caesar protrude his black knob and stare at her, in- 
stead of keeping close behind the covert. 

Few words sufficed to bring them to a clear understanding. Juno 
glided like a black ghost in and out through the thick underwood, and 
Caesar followed with as little noise and bustle as a shadow makes in 
leaping a five-barred gate after its owner. When she had arrived 
within her citadel, and all access to it was duly bolted and barred, 
Juno asked her new guest if he were not dying of hunger, which sup- 
posilion si ill haunted her; though the alertness of Caesar's motions had 
given such good demonstration that his powers of walking were not 
diminished, that she had not thought it necessary to stop and offer him 
the provender she carried till they were beneath the shelter of her 
roof. 

As a reply to this kind and hospitable question, Caesar produced 
from various parts of his dress about three pounds of very solid beef- 
steak, a jar full of cold hominy, half of a very respectable loaf, and a 
most comfortable little flask of whisky. 

" Oh, Caesar! Caesar!" cried the old woman in a voice of deep 
concern, " has hunger brought you to this! What will our Phcbe 
say? She'd have died of starvation outright, Caesar, before she'd have 
demeaned herself to do such a deed." 

"Why, mother!" replied Caesar, laughing heartily, and showing 
his magnificent teeth from ear to ear, "what do you think I have done? 
— walked into a public, and helped myself without paying for it, I 
expect? But I mustn't be angry with you, 'cause you're Phebe's best 
friend. However, I haven't been thieving, mother; and what's 
more, I'm hardly the least bit hungry; so if you are, eat away, and 
welcome." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 169 

A few minutes' conversation explained the mystery to Juno, and she 
was fain to confess that it was one quite beyond her guessing. 

" And is this the first time you have crept out, my poor lad? How 
weary you must be!" 

"The first lime, mother! I expect not. Oh dear! oh dear! what would 
have become of me if 1 had never once stretched my poor legs since 
first I look to skulking ! No, no, mother, 'l has not been as bad as that 
with me neither; for I have walked about this here forest the best 
part of every night, and always contrived to be safe again in my 
loft before the good beyond-sea gentleman came to look for me." 

11 But, Caesar, what for do you walk about the woods with such a 
sight of provision? Why, you might walk all night and do nothing 
but eat, and yet have. enough for breakfast in the morning." 

Caesar's gay spirit laughed aloud at the notion of his having provided 
such an occupation for himself during his nocturnal rambles; but the 
minute after, he sighed, and answered very sentimentally, 

" No, molher ! it was not to be after eating beefsteaks every step I 
go that I left the gentleman's lumber-loft : it was to be looking for 
my poor Phebe — my beautiful Phebel Isn't she a beauty, molher? 
and didn't I ought to love her? No, no, I never slirred out 
one of the nights without carrying with me the next day's food, 
that the good master always brought to me soon after it was dark 
— because— but I am afraid I am a fool — because I thought, mother, 
that if by hap I found Phebe, we might run off to the woods 
together, and that I might hide her, and leave her with a good supper, 
breakfast, and dinner, you see, and then get back to my loft, and come 
to her again next night." 

Juno looked at him very sternly as he explained this scheme to her, 
and then said, 

11 You talk of loving Phebe, you, Master Caesar ! I'll tell you what, 
my lad — you're no more worthy of being Phebe' s lov%iyhan I am to 
be queen of the world. She run away into the woods, ancnie munching 
beefsteaks in a hole till you come back again to bring her more! — 
Fie, fie, fie, Master Caesar! If I'd fancied you'd been that sort of 
chap, you might have walked eastward beyond sunrise for me — I 
never would have stopped you." 

" Oh. molher! molher!" cried the poor fellow, wringing his hands, 
"don't be so cruel hard upon me! I never did, nor I never will do, 
anything unworthy of Phebe. Don't I know her education? — and 
don't. 1 look upon her to be something higher and better than a poor 
black mortal like me? — Only I am so in love, molher, you see, that I 
couldn't for the life of me keep nonsense out of my head." 

"Well, well," said Juno, considerably softened by this apology, 
" I must not quarrel with true love, I suppose, let it speak ever so 



170 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

wild ; and to say truth, it don't very much matter, Master Caesar, how 
wild you speak, for Phebe will just do what's right and nothing else, 
that you may 'pend upon." 

"And where is she all this lime?" cried Caesar, bursting out into 
a sort of renewed ecstasy, — " Where is she? — when may 1 look upon 
her?" 

Juno opened the door of her hut and looked up at the bright 
stars. 

" It is past midnight," said she, " but there's time for me to go and 
come, I expect, before dangers awake. Our head devil's away to 
Orleans, Caesar, and that makes us bold. 80 if you will sit quiet in 
that corner, and eat your own supper like an honest man, without 
stowing away any of it in hopes to entice Phebe into the woods, I'll go 
and bring her to you." 

" Go, mother, go !" cried the delighted negro. " Oh! that ever I 
should live to see this hour !" 

"You won't live, Master Caesar, to see many more if you make 
such outcries as that," said the old woman, preparing to depart. But 
stepping back, she added, " Now look you, my lad, this hut is off the 
grounds a good half mile, and it belongs to me and nobody else, so 'tis 
but rarely in the broadest sunshine of mid-day that any eyes but my 
own look within it: for many count that I am a witch, Caesar; but 
you are a Christian, and it is not a witch can scare you. Little danger, 
therefore, is there that human eyes, and those simple ones, should 
come to peep into it by night, — and so I expect you're safe enough. 
But 'tis belter sometimes to make sure, surer ; so look you here, 
Caesar." 

Juno approached her bed, and pushing it aside, lifted the trap-door, 
and with a look and altitude sufficiently wilchlike to have made some 
hearts stout enough on ordinary occasions tremble not a little, she 
pointed to tl^ Excavated chamber beneath. This hole, for it was little 
better, was curiously and very ingeniously ventilated by a sort of 
chimney that rose behind the hut to the level of the ground outside, 
but sufficiently surrounded by briars and brambles to escape ten thou- 
sand times more observation than was ever likely to fall upon it. This 
chimney permitted a light placed on a low stool near it to burn 
clearly, and by its aid the whole of the excavation was made 
visible. 

" Here's my witchcraft, Caesar," said Juno, in a chuckling tone, in 
which triumph and fun were blended. " I have saved the lives of 
six runaways here already since I have been on the estate, and I 
may chance to save some more yet, spile of the confidential clerk. If 
you hear a noise, my lad, that does not begin like this," — and Juno 
whistled through the hole in her bamboo, — " then dip down here and 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WMTLAW. 1*1 

pull the cord after you, and then you'll be as safe as the colonel him- 
self — and perhaps a bit safer." 

Caesar looked at her and her masterly arrangement with astonish- 
ment, then grinned applause, nodded his head, and instantly dipped 
into the abyss before her eyes, proving that he both understood and 
could practise her instructions. 

Old Juno made her way to the hut of Peggy in about half the time 
that would have been allowed her by the most accomplished sporting 
eye in the world. In truth, this singular power of gelling over the 
ground by a sort of complex movement which it would be impossible 
to describe, was by no means the least important support of her super- 
natural pretensions. 

A negro hut ever opens with a latch — for all intruders who could 
annoy the helpless inmates would find a way to achieve an entrance 
were the door fastened with bars as heavy as those on the gales of 
Ham. Juno found no difficulty therefore in approaching the bed 
where Phebe and her mother slept. 
"Phebe!" said the old woman softly. 

" You have found him, Juno!" exclaimed the poor girl, springing 
out of bed. " Mother ! mother! wake ! — I am going to see Caesar !** 
Peggy, who had worked hard and slept heavily, not having that 
restless fluttering at the heart which had kept Phebe waking during 
nearly the whole of the two last nights, had some difficulty in fully 
understanding what was going forward ; but when at length it was 
made clear to her that Caesar was actually concealed on or near Pa- 
radise Plantation, her anxiety clearly proved that she already consi- 
dered him as a very dear and precious son. 

"Oh Lor! oh Lor!" exclaimed the poor soul in a real agony. 
"Juno! isn't this fool-hardy boldness? Think of that dear cretur 
Caesar in the hands of the 'denlial clerk !" 

" He'd better be in the hands of the devil, Peggy, that's a fact — 
for maybe salvation might fetch him back there, — but for certain sure, 
mercy would never reach him in the clutches of that other and w r orser 
demon. — However, don't be after scaring the girl with such fancies, 
when I want to have her steady and reasonable beyond common. 
Caesar is as safe, I tell you, as the President: — so come, Phebe dear; 
never mind looking smart, girl, — though that's all in nature ; but we 
have no more than lime enough ; — come along." 

" And mayn't I see dear Caesar too, Juno?" said the affectionate 
Peggy, very pileously. 

11 And Becky too — and Sally, I suppose !" replied old Juno crossly. 
" No, you can't, Peggy ; one ought to be three witches in one to carry 
off such jobs as you would put one on : lie still and say nothing to 
nobody. — Come along, Phebe." 



172 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

In stealthy silence, and keeping cautiously distant from every build- 
ing, the old woman and her agitaled young companion gained at 
length the place of meeting. Juno stopped before the hut and whistled. 
In an instant the door flew open, and the weeping Phebe was clasped 
in the arms of her lover. 

"In, in, foolish children!" cried their protecting genius. "It's 
well that the bull-frogs and Ihe calliedids can tell no tales." 

If true affection could suffice to make two creatures happy though 
surrounded by danger and threatened with tortures and death, Caesar 
and Phebe must have enjoyed Ihe boon, for their allachment to each 
other was very strong, and for a few moments perhaps Ihey lasted an 
unmixed joy. But Ihere is something in the condition of a slave that, 
beyond every other marked by human misery, defies the power of hope 
to gild its future; and herein perhaps lies, (hough it sounds like a 
paradox, the secret of those light smiles and all that careless merriment 
of which we are told by those who would defend the abomination. It 
is only when it is possible that some change may alter our condition 
that we feel eilher anxious or hopeful about it. King David fasled 
and wept while his spirit wa< suspended between hope and fear; but 
when all was over — when all hope had fled, he arrayed himself and 
feasted. A negro slave has no hope for the future ; he, therefore, 
gives himself to Ihe careless merriment of the present whenever it 
greets him; forgetful perhaps, for the moment, of the labour and the 
lash (hat awaits him with the morrow's sun, but as far removed in his 
laughter from any feeling that deserves the name of human happiness 
as Ihe morris-dancer who cuts a caper on a mountebank's slage. 

Afler the first few moments, during which nothing was remembered 
by eilher but that they were once more together, the sense of Caesar's 
danger came back to Ihe mind of Phebe, and she burst into tears. 

" Oh, Phebe ! Phebe !" exclaimed the unhappy young man, "don't 
turn so very soon from joy to sorrow ! Think what a dear blessing it 
is to look in one another's face— and don't cry, Phebe, till we are 
forced to part. — And how do they treat my pretty Phebe? — tell me 
all— tell me all, Phebe," he repealed, while his voice trembled as he 
asked the question. " They don't give her the lash, Juno?— Surely 
no master could order the lash to Phebe ?" 

"No, my dear Caesar — I have escaped well as yet; don't think of 
me — think only of yourself. Oh, Juno ! dear, dear, Juno ! what is to 
become of him?" said Phebe, vainly endeavouring to check her tears. 

" And that's what I must work my old brain to find out. 'Tis no 
easy job, that's a fact, children ; but maybe I'll contrive something for 
him for all that; so wipe up your tears, deary, and forget all about it 
for to-night." 

Another trembling half-hour was spent in asking and answering 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 173 

questions concerning Iheir respective situations since they were torn 
asunder; and then the old woman interfered, with the unwelcome 
tidings that they must part. The poor souls acknowledged it, declared 
that she was quite right, and that they would go directly ; but still 
another and another word succeeded, lilt Juno lost all patience, and 
finally protested that they should never meet again in her hut if they 
lingered another moment. 

This threat produced the desired effect; — poor Phebe impressed a 
hasty kiss on Caesar's forehead, and was out of sight in a moment. 

"• And you have got to steal to your roost at Keichland ?" said the 
old woman, addressing the disconsolate lover; " and that before any 
of the German people are about ? You might as safely march into 
Congress, and say you won't be a slave. Just look eastward, Master 
Caesar, that's all ; just listen to the twittering of the birds, — they are 
not such fools as you — they know their lime if you don't, and they 
tell you as loud as they can speak that it's morning, morning, morning, 
and that it will be broad daylight in less than an hour ; and so, to pay 
you for your kissing and your jabbering, you must just slip down again 
into my strong box. There ! lake your provender with ye — and bide 
sliil till I call you." 

Infinitely too unhappy to discuss the possibility of his getting back 
to Keichland, and pretty nearly indifferent to what might next befal 
him, Caesar uttered not a word, but meekly obeying her commands, 
let himself down into the recess, which was speedily covered by ihe 
trap-door. Another moment sufficed to replace the little bed in its 
usual position ; and so proudly satisfied was Juno with the security of 
her guest, that she would probably have seen one of their task- 
masters enter her dwelling with more of triumph and satisfaction than 
of alarm. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

With all her wild vagaries, old Juno was perfectly capable of form- 
ing a very just estimate of the value of such a friend as the one Caesar 
had found atReichland; and not only prudently determined that his 
enforced absence should not be left unexplained, but moreover, that 
if it were in the power of an old woman to do it, the kindness mani- 
fested should be wrought upon, to become still further useful. 

In pursuance of this decision she set off on the following morning 
for the house of Mr. Steinmark. Notwithstanding his wandering 
license, she had never entered his premises before, and her shrewd, 



174 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

and in some sort enlightened mind, was powerfully struck by the 
novel aspect of Ihe whole establishment. In spite of all the suffer- 
ings and hated degradation which the system of slavery had brought 
upon herself, and the misery she had witnessed from its effects on 
others, Juno had never yet imagined what human nature could be 
without it. As she entered the large farm-yard, the first peculiarity 
that attracted her attention was the perfect order and neatness that 
that reigned there. There was something, she hardly knew what, so 
totally unlike the general air that pervades a scene of labour where 
slaves are employed, that she seated herself on a block of wood be- 
side the entrance, that she might contemplate it at leisure. 

' ' Where," thought Juno, "do they keep all the children ? — Maybe 
they don't hire breeding servants — and then I expect the little ones 
don't roll and tumble about with the other stoek, like ours." 

In truth, there is no feature more remarkable in a regular slave- 
peopled plantation or farm than the manner in which the children (the 
multiplication of this branch of produce being one of the most pro- 
fitable speculations) are seen lying about in the homestead, some half, 
some wholly naked, all well fattened and fed, but bearing little more 
resemblance in altitude and action to the being made in God's own 
image, than the young swine with whom they associate. 

11 And how do they manage," muttered the old woman, as with her 
chin resting on her bamboo she continued her examination of the 
scene, — i( how do they manage to have all the fences so unaccountable 
trim, and even the very dunghill kept in handsome shape, and they 
without a nigger belonging to them "?" 

From the still life, her eye was attracted to the widely-opened doors 
of a large barn opposite to her, in which were two German labourers 
threshing out wheat. She regarded them steadily for several minutes, 
and then exclaimed aloud, " If that's the rate at which a hired while 
man works, no wonder the master of the land is wealthy. It would 
take six niggers to do the work of those two." 

"You're right there, mother," said an old German whom Stein- 
mark had brought with him from lite Fatherland, and who at that mo- 
ment entered at the gate beside her. " 1 have watched negroes work 
for an hour together, many a lime, since I have been in this country, 
and I never saw one yet who put out the strength of a man. But 
perhaps they might do belter if they worked on their own account, or 
got profit or praise in any way as olher folks do." 

Juno rose from her seat, and looked at the man with an expression 
that on younger and more comely features would have been very 
touching, for it seemed to speak the sorrow and degradation of a whole 
race. 

44 Happy, happy, happy are you !" she said, in a low and plaintive 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 175 

voice, which showed lhat it was not her human temper, but herim- 
morlal soul, lhat was moved by the thoughts suggested. "Do you 
kneel late and early to thank God for the especial grace to which you 
are born? — or do you tremble lest his justice should make all even in 
the world to come?— There lies the master's house, I expect," she 
added, pointing her bamboo towards a roof and chimneys lhat rose 
above a thick cluster of flowering shrubs lo the left. 

The German nodded assent, but spoke not ; for in truth he was 
puzzled by the singular tenour of her speech, and a spice of native 
superstition, joined to the very witchlike appearance of the old wo- 
man, gave him a sort of (remour as he listened to her which disposed 
him to avoid farther conversation. 

Proceeding in the direction indicated, and opening a neat low wicket 
that led from the farmyard, Juno soon found herself upon the wide- 
spread lawn in front of the portico. 

The windows of the sitting-room were as usual open, and nothing 
doubling but that so pleasant a room must be the abode of its master, 
she walked on and presented her singular figure before the eyes of a 
young trio, who were laughing and talking with much gaiety while 
examining a large map lhat lay on the tabic. 

This happy party consisted of Lotte, Henrich. and the Baron Hoch- 
land. No other person was in the room ; and they were indulging in 
the delicious hopes which a letter that had arrived the night before, 
had opened to them, that they should ere long inhabit the land of their 
wishes and their birth. This letter was from the Baron Steinmark, 
and announced the death both of his wife and son by the smallpox: 
it slated, with deep feeling, the desolation of his bereaved condition, 
his son having naturally been the object of all his hopes, and con- 
cluded by imploring his brother to bring back his family to Westpha- 
lia, where his large and desolate castle should receive them, and 
thereby become once more a home of hope and comfort to himself. 

Frederick Steinmark had been deeply touched by the receipt of this 
letter, but, as it should seem by the words of hope rather than of cer- 
tainty uttered by Ihe young people as they travelled exultingly over the 
map of Germany which lay on the table, it had not elicited from him 
as yet any promise to quit the prosperous domain he had created 
around him. 

So completely were the party occupied, that neither of ihem eilher 
heard or saw the approach of Juno ; and it was not till her strange 
figure was within the window, lhat Lotte, who fronted it, looked up 
and saw her. 

An exclamation of surprise burst from her ; but age and decrepi- 
tude were ever sure to propitiate kindness from Lolte, which the 



176 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

badge of oppression displayed by her dark skin rather tended to in- 
crease than diminish. 

•'You look weary, my good woman, — -sit down," was the fair girl's 
salutation to this battered remnant of humanity ; and as she 'uttered it, 
she placed an easy chair for her. This gentle welcome completely 
changed the mood of Ihe old woman. When she first heard their 
laughter, and marked their fair young joyous faces, a bitter feeling of 
contrast arose, followed however by the thought that, despite her age, 
her colour, and her slavery, she too might be counted as something in 
creation, and something loo as much out of the ordinary run of mor- 
tals as was the beautiful creature before whom she stood. 

This thought was followed with the determination to disturb a 
little the bright current of their young spirits, by astounding their 
imaginations with some of her mystical rhyming prophecies, and the 
assumption of more than mortal power ; but Lotle's voice conjured 
the foul fiend out of her, and taking the offered seat, which was more 
welcome to her mind than to her body, she said, 

" Heaven reward you, fair and good, for your merciful kindness to 
an old slave ! Are you Ihe master's daughter? " 

" Yes, I am — if you mean the master of this house, — I am Frederick 
Sleinmai k's daughter." 

" And may I see him, my pretty lady? I have real business for 
his ear, and no rambling nonsense of witchcraft, as perhaps you may 
think by looking at me." 

"My father," replied Lotto, "is in the fields; but we must not 
send you to look for him there, for you might wander far and miss 
him at last. Cannot you leave a message for him? I will repeat it 
very faithfully when he returns." 

Though Ihe beauty and sweetness of Lotte had quite won old Juno's 
heart, which was moreover not insensible to Ihe good-humoured as- 
pect of her companions, she felt too deeply the importance of not con- 
fiding the secret of a runaway slave to any from whom it could be 
concealed, to venture any allusion to Ihe real object of her visit. She 
therefore only said in reply, that she thought the master would choose 
himself to hear what she had to say, and therefore she would rather 
seek him if she must walk an hour for it. 

"Run, Henrich, then," said Lotte, " and try to learn which way 
he is gone." The young man obeyed, and in a few minutesrelurned 
with both father and mother, whom he had met together returning to 
the house. 

" This is my father, good woman," said Lotte, stepping forward to 
meet him, and whispering in his ear, that he must speak lo Ihe poor 
old negress himself, tor that she would communicate her business to 
no one else. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. i77 

This information at once determined the kind-hearted German to 
break through his usual custom of appointing a deputy, and sealing 
himself beside her, and looking with much interest at her worn and 
singular figure, he said, in a voice that was indeed the father to that 
of Lotle. "What can I do for you, good woman? " 

"Speak to me where none other but yourself can hear," replied 
Juno, with a little touch of mysticism in her tone. 

11 That can hardly be necessary, I think," replied Steinmark, some- 
what suspicious from the lone that his visitor would prove an impos- 
tor ; " there are none here but friends — what is it you want of me? " 

"Have you never done a good deed," said the old woman, fixing 
her deep-set eyes upon him, " that might be a saving and a heavenly 
act if done in private, and yet might prove bloody and mischievous if 
witnessed?" 

The eyes of the whole party were fixed upon Juno as she spoke, and 
there was not one of them that did not share the suspicion which had 
at first occurred to Steinmark, that she intended to pass for a fortune- 
teller or negro sorceress; a profession not unfrequenlly adopted by 
those among the race who attain to an advanced age. It was there- 
fore with considerable surprise that his family, who knew his uncom- 
promising aversion to deception of every kind, saw Frederick Stein- 
mark rise at the moment her look and manner betokened most mystery, 
and with a heightened colour and hurried step proceed towards the door, 
desiring the old woman to follow him. 

Having reached a place of safety, Steinmark, who, as may easily 
be divined, had guessed her errand, made her again sit down, and 
then once more requested to know her business. 

"The God of mercy will bless you for this, and for the rest," said 
Juno; " and now I will tell you all. Caesar was not ungrateful, master 
— negroes are never ungrateful ; but Caesar loved one of his own poor 
race as dearly as a prince and a white man could love — and he knew 
Phebe was not far otT from here — and he wandered about by night till 
he found her, and that was yesterday ; and the minutes flew over fast, 
and light was in the east before the poor young things had told each 
olher one half their misery since parting. And so I sent her home, 
and I hid him closer and safer than you could do, master with all 
your noble kindness. — But Caesar is not ungrateful." 

Steinmark was probably not sorry to hear that his dangerous guest 
had found another asylum; but really anxious about the future destiny 
of the poor feilow, he inquired what he intended to do after the first 
heat of pursuit should be over. 

4 ' It is there, master, that we must look again to you," replied Juno 
(irmly, while she fixed her skilful and scrutinising eyes on the bene- 
volent countenance before her. " If you will help, he may be saved ; 

12 



178 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

—if not, torture or death, or perhaps both, must be all that he can hope 
for." 

" I would do all I could," replied the noble German, " to help any 
fellow- creature in such a strait; and your poor friend Caesar is a very 
fine fellow, and I would gladly serve him even in a less necessity : but 
what can I do, my good woman? The laws of the slate are explicit, 
severe, and most rigorously executed against all who aid and assist in 
the evasion or concealment of a slave. My being a foreigner by no 
means exempts me from the penalties these laws exact for such an of- 
fence. — Wha-l then do you suppose I could do for him?" 

" I will tell you, sir," said Juno, " what you can do, and I will 
pray the God of mercy to give you grace to do it. You may purchase 
Csesar." 

" Purchase him, my good friend? — You surely forget his situation. 
How can I deal for a slave of whose existence I am bound, for his own 
sake, to appear ignorant?" 

" No, master, no," replied Juno eagerly; " you are only bound to 
appear ignorant of that which you neither know, nor ever shall know. 
You are ignorant of the place of his concealment — say it, and swear it, 
master, with a safe conscience, for so you are, and so you ever shall be ; 
— swear this to Benjamin Franklin Oglevie, owner of the paper-factory 
on the banks of the river five miles above New Orleans, and then oiler 
him such a price for Caesar as shall tempt his avarice to the sacrifice of 
his revenge. Do this, and your wealth shall be blessed to the hundredth 
generation of those who shall inherit it." 

There was something in the language of the old negress that surprised 
Steinmark, and convinced him that it was no common person he had to 
deal with. Nevertheless, there was an apparent want of coherence 
in her scheme which led him strongly to suspect, that whatever her 
mind might once have been, it was now unsettled. It was evident, 
however, that she was perfectly capable of comprehending what was 
said to her, and in the humane hope of turning her mind from a project 
that might harass her very painfully, and perhaps excite fallacious 
hopes in those for whom she seemed so deeply interested, he attempted 
to point out the impossibility of Is success. 

" But do you not perceive," said he, " that I shall acknowledge 
the being acquainted with his retreat by making this proposal? How 
can I offer to purchase a slave if I do not know where to find him?" 

14 Leave that to me, master. All I ask of you is to go, or send, or 
write to Benjamin Franklin Oglevie, paper-factory, Ciceroville, near 
New Orleans; and write or say this : ' Sir, — you had a slave called 
Caesar; he ran away from you about ten days ago. I will give you 
one thousand dollars for him, provided I can find him; as I understand 
he worked as a gardener in Kentucky, and I find difficulty in getting 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 17tt 

such a one as I require. At this moment I know not where he is ; but 
I am assured that if I make the purchase, he will have means of 
knowing it, and that after I have paid the money and received your 
receipt for it, together with all other documents necessary to prove 
that he is mine, I shall find him on the following morning at work in 
my garden. In case you should wish to know at whose recommen- 
dation it is I wish to make this expensive purchase, I beg to inform 
you that it is Colonel Dart, a gentleman of high standing, whose name is 
well known in New Orleans, to whom I owe the advantage of being 
likely to get a gardener to suit me.' — Will you write or say this, 
master?" 

The incoherence of the plan had certainly disappeared ; but there 
was another feature in it quite as fatal to the mind of Steinmark, and 
he answered, " If I should consent to give a thousand dollars for the 
purchase of Caesar, I certainly would not accompany the offer with a 
falsehood. — Who is Colonel Dart? I know nothing of him." 

"But I do," replied Juno with a smile that seemed involuntary; 
for, resuming the earnestness of her manner, she said eagerly, 
" Should you receive such a recommendation from Colonel Dart, will 
you do it?" 

Frederick Steinmark was not naturally a very cautious man, but 
there was something in the appearance and manners of his visiter 
which inspired more surprise than confidence; yet he was far from 
intending to abandon the hope she had suggested, that he might save 
poor Caesar. After meditating for a minute or two, instead of answer- 
ing her question, he said, " Do you know anything of a person named 
Bligh ?" 

" Do I know him ?—do I know the apostle of our race? — do I know 
Edward Bligh? — Yes, master ! I know him, and I love and reverence 
him as the good only can be loved and reverenced. Will you do this 
thing at his bidding?" 

11 1 will," said Steinmark without farther hesitation. " If he re- 
quests it, and no falsehood mixes with the negociation, I will give a 
thousand dollars to become the lawful master of Caesar." 

The joy and gratitude of poor old Juno were expressed in words and 
looks of such genuine and simple sincerity, that the feelings of Stein- 
mark were now strongly awakened in her favour, and he reproached 
himself for the uuworthy suspicions he had entertained of her motives 
and character. 

"What is your name, my good woman ?" said he kindly. 

" Old Juno, master," she replied, rising from her chair and making 
the lowest curtsey her stiff knees would permit ; and old Juno will 
bless you with her latest breath." 

"Well, Juno, I think we understand each other now; so let me 

12 * 



180 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

takeayou back^gain to the sitting-room. By the way, I see no occa- 
sion to preserve secrecy with my family any longer. When .the 
safety of Caesar was concerned, I submitted to it; but as you tell me he 
is safe from all pursuit, there is nothing to be feared for him : and to 
tell you the truth, Juno, I am not fond of mysteries." 

"And I would to heaven, master," she replied, "that the same 
freedom of spirit, and that power which the white man has of doing 
his will openly, belonged to me, as it does to you ! then old Juno 
would leave off her tricks, and never again try to seem other than tho 
poor old cripple she is. But it would not do, master ; Juno would 
lose all her power of doing good." 

"Well, well! I suppose you know best, Juno. But I may tell 
them all, may I not, why you are here? 

"Only let me go first. Do not let me hear you talk together of 
old Juno and her tricks." 

" But you will slay to rest, and to take some refreshment ?" 

Juno shook her head. "You have given rest and refreshment to 
my spirit, master, and that was what I wanted. Farewell, and God 
reward you 1" As she spoke, she passed through a door that opened 
upon a field behind the house, and traversed it so rapidly, that Stein- 
mark's answering " L FareweH" was scarcely uttered in time to over- 
take her. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

Meanwhile, our hero arrived at New Orleans. There is always 
something splendid and attractive in the sight of a great city rising on 
the banks of a majestic river. The effect, indeed, is often delusive, 
giving an idea of general cheerfulness and prosperity which eilher 
belongs not to the scene at all, or only to a very limited portion of its 
population. In no instance, perhaps, is this more the case than at 
New Orleans. The noble Levee, forming a barrier to one of earth's 
most powerful streams — the long, long line of shipping, bearing the 
colours of all the nations of the world — the busy market, the well- 
dressed crowd, the gay verandas — all speak of industry and weallh. 
But penetrate a very little beyond the surface, and where is the barren 
rock or desert moor that shows not a spectacle more cheering? Year 
after year, religion and philosophy have struck off the fellers from Ihe 
emancipated slave in different quarters of the globe ; but at New Or- 
leans every white man's object is to rivet them on his black brethren 
firmer and firmer still. This is the business of their lives : — and 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 181 

what are (heir pleasures? 4^pMM|MMtfW IH "MB' a ttM*W^ 
fl^Pt and lo rouse llieir dreamy, idle souls lo animation by Ihe sordid 
stimulants of strong drink and gambling : and then, as if their own 
unholy deeds brought not sufficient punishment, nature sends forth 
the monster Fever, to stalk through the land, breathing avenging 
curses with his poisonous breath. 

Such is New Orleans. Yet to New Orleans Jonathan Jefferson 
Whiilaw approached with a heart swelling with anticipated pleasure, 
and a brain throbbing with projects for the gratification both of avarice 
and ambition. 

The aspiring nature of young Whiilaw mteht with truth be called 
an appetite that grew with what it fed on : for the firmer he felt 
himself in the good graces of Colonel Dart, and the higher his estimate 
became of the amount of his father's wealth, the more ardent was his 
wish lo rise still higher on Ihe wheel of Fortune. 

As the young man stood on the stern gallery of the stately boat that 
bore him onward into the very centre of this extensive mart, from 
which station he was enabled to contemplate one by one every object 
after he had passed il — for not for worlds would Whiilaw have stood 
among the motley population at Ihe bow, even lo gratify his longing 
wish lo see all and everything, — it might be fairly doubted whether 
his confident hopes of gain at the gambling-houses, or the glowing an- 
ticipations of unbounded license of debauchery for his leisure hours, 
inspired the strongest feeling of triumphant happiness at his heart. 

Scarcely had the churning paddles ceased lo play, when he sprang 
onshore, and securing a drag and a negro, he proceeded directly to 
to Mrs. Bennel's celebrated boarding-house, renowned for Ihe best 
dinners, and the most confiding indii\erence as to exits and entrances, 
of any house in Ihe town. 

He was fortunate enough to find a room vacant at this favourite 
rendezvous of freedom and fashion; and having, by dint of persuading 
Mrs. Bennet that he should certainly stay three limes as long as he 
intended to do, prevailed upon her lo remit a dollar a week in her 
usual charge, he established himself at once, adorned himself wilh the 
most chosen embellishments of Natchez, and sallied forth in search of 
adventure. 

Whiilaw was an excellent billiard- player; and even amidst the 
rural, or at least suburban retreats of Natchez-under-Hill, had al- 
ready learned how very easy it was, ^ilh a skilful hand and a crafty 
brain, to make pleasure and profit unite in rewarding the hours and 
years of practice he had devoted to this game. 

He first directed his steps lo a well-known table close to Ihe French 
theatre; and, as was usual with him on such occasions, assumed a 
look of simple curiosity, as if the scene were very new and very 



185 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

by two men who appeared 
very unequally matched; the one being a dashing, neck-or-noflB^, 
and seeming lucky player; and the other, a quiet, deliberate, but 
very clumsy performer. 

Considerable amusement was produced among the bystanders, who 
were numerous, by the contrast both between the play and the de- 
meanour of the opponents. 

•* Now for it, my fine fellow!" cried the successful player, who was 
evidently of the half-horse, half-alligator breed of fair Kentucky ; 
''now, then, I'll go the whole hog with ye— I'll make eight of this 
stroke,— and that's a s]iame, for it's two more than I want." 

He made the stroke, $nd marked four for it. 

" Then I've got another squeak for it, before I'm right-down slump- 
ed," cried the losing player, in a small voice, in which a little hope 
seemed to struggle against a great deal of despair. " Please, gentle- 
men, don't touch my elbow ; I expect that's not the way to give me fair 
play, and who knows but I may do something better at last?" 

Shouts of laughter burst from the lookers-on, as the man, after stu- 
dying the table as if his life depended on the hazard he was playing for, 
at last gave a most energetic thrust and missed. 

"Capital! capital!" shouted the Kentuckian ; "take another go 
— do now — and then you see I shall win clean without losing an 
inch." 

His adversary, looking sullen, sulky, and mortified, replied : " Play, 
can't you? and not stand there gibing and jeering a belter man than 
yourself — play, and have done with it." 

The Kentuckian made a careless stroke, and the game was finished. 

The loser immediately pulled«out a huge leather bag extremely well 
filled ; and as he laid down the five dollars he had lost, observed in a 
tone of recovered cheerfulness, that he wasn't daunted for all that was 
come and gone yet — that if he lost, he could afford to pay, and no- 
body's leave to ask neither." • 

Haifa dozen voices simultaneously offered to play him, and more 
than one proposed to give him odds; but he turned from them all, say- 
ing, N No, no, you'll be all too hard for me; I'd like to try luck with 
this young gentleman," he added, civilly turning towards Whitlaw, 
" for he looks more like one of my own sort. Jerico bob ! young gen- 
tleman, let you and I have a right-down good try together— I'll bet 
fifty dollars with any one that pleases, if 'twas only to prove that I arn't 
afraid to lose." 

" I expect, sir," replied Whitlaw with the air of a person rather af- 
fronted, "that you mightn't find it so over-easy to beat me neither. 
'Tisafact that I never was in New Orleans before; but I calculate a 
man may play billiards in country as well as town — there's more tables 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 183 

than ono in the Cnion. 1 dofH wafl! to'plav you, sir. nrfh'ow: if I 
beat, I like to beat for honour as well as for profit ; and so I'll play this 
gentleman here," turning to the Kenluckian, " for a hundred dollars if 
he likes it." 

It appeared that the table was already bespoken; but after a few 
minutes' conversation among the parties, it Mas agreed to give it up 
to the young stranger and the Kentuckian, if the latter consented to 
the match ; and bets were already running high against the boastful 
youngster. 

" I expect I mustn't show a white feather, though the bet's rather 
a high one for a poor country dealer like me," replied the man ; " but 
when did Kentuck turn tail? So have at ye, mv young un," he added, 
placing himself at the table and brandishing his cue: "faint heart 
never won either lady or living." 

" That's hard enough upon me though," observed the man who had 
just lost the game; "I've a right to my revenge anyhow." 

'•Well, then, take it," cried Whillaw, with the gay boastful laugh 
of a boy ; "father didn't send me to New Orleans for the first time 
without lining my purse, I can tell you that ; and so you may bet 
against me, and upon the man that gave it to you so handsome — and 
that's a generous offer, I expect." 

" Well, then," said the loser, " I'll do it — done, for a hundred upon 
Kentuck — done !" 

"Done!" replied Whitlaw." Now, then, for the honour of the 
backwoods ! What will father say if I lose?" 

" I'll take you another fifty, sir, if you like it," said a yellow-fever- 
tinted senior who was quietly looking on. 

"My — !" exclaimed Whillaw; "if luck runs against me, I'm 
done, I tell you that. But 'tis just as well to be hanged for a sheep as 
a lamb ; so I say done to you, sir, for fifty. And look now, 111 tell you 
what I'll do besides." 

He set down the cue he had taken, and drawing a heavy bag from 
his pocket, counted one hundred dollars from it; then with equal sim- 
plicity iie produced a pocket-book from his breast-pocket, and dis- 
played notes to the amount of five hundred more: "There now!" 
said he, " that's my stock for the time present; not but what father 
could double and treble that, and more too, and never miss it. But that's 
my capital for the lime being, and I'm willing to risk every cent of it, 
except one hundred to pay boarding and carry me up home. So if 
anybody has a fancy for a bet, let him speak : but 111 tell him before- 
hand, that I'm not that bad at the game to be made the fool of, that 
we've some of us seen done slumped in our day." 

Whitlaw accompanied these last words by throwing a sly look over 
his shoulder at the loser of the last game. 



184 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

At least half a dozen voices again proclaimed their readiness to pro- 
nounce the important "done!" to whatever amount the young and 
hardy stranger chose to name. Upon which Whillaw very delibe- 
rately, but uttering now and then a laughing word of sell- reproach 
against his own daring, apportioned his bets to the amount of his cash, 
amongst those who had challenged him; and then, examining his cue 
more carefully, and changing it more than once, he declared himself 
at length ready to begin. 

The Kenluckian was by no means a bad, though a very dashing 
player, and began the game by making two or three extremely fine 
strokes. Belting became brisk among the bystanders, very long odds 
being offered against Whillaw. His style of play was totally unlike 
that of his antagonist : though he had talked of luck, it was very evi- 
dent to the only person present (except the marker) who really under- 
stood the game, that it was not to his luck he trusted. When the balls 
were so placed as to afford the possibility of a stroke that told high, he 
made it, but repeatedly missed one or two pretty hazards that he 
seemed anxiously to play for. 

When the game was about half through, and Whillaw right behind 
his adversary, the quiet, awkward player who had just been so un- 
mercifully beat by the Kenluckian took an opportunily of whispering 
to our hero, while the attention of the whole room was fixed on a stroke 
that his opponent was studying with more caution than seemed usual 
with him, 

" I say, young man, let me off my bet, and I'll contrive that the rest 
shall all double." 

M Good !" replied Whillaw, in the same lone, and with a look that 
seemed to say " now we understand each other I" 

The Kenluckian missed the stroke. Whillaw pretended the most 
extravagant joy, and exclaimed "Eight! what's eight? — I wish, by 
Jingo, thai I'd a thousand dollars more about me ! I'd be d — d if I 
wouldn't slake 'em every cent afler that miss." 

" Well, sir," said the clumsy player, " 'tis a pity you should be 
thwarted, and this your first try at New Orleans. If you'll be pleased 
to name your name, and give uslnoles of hand, I don't question but the 
company would be content." 

" To be sure," — " To be sure," — said many voices ; and Whitlaw, 
wilh the air of a man heated and reckless, immediately increased his 
bets to fifteen hundred dollars. 

The result may be easily guessed— he won the game by two. 

Notwithstanding the general disappointment and the angry feeling 
that accompanied it, there was not a single viclim who did not believe 
it to be Ihe effect of sheer ill luck. 

" At any rate, sir," said one of the greatest losers, " I hope you 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 185 

don't intend to be so mean as to start away home with your winnings? 
If you're a gentleman, you'll be willing lo bet again." 

" Well, sir, I am a gentleman," replied Whillaw, " and willing lo 
do what's fair and honourable; and I'd scorn to be afraid of risking 
again this, and more loo, (ill you've fairly got your revenge, which is 
sure locome, I know, sooner orlaler; only I expect you won't insist 
upon my playing now, seeing it's dinner-lime, and I'm going to dine at 
Mrs. Bennet's for the first time; and they do say her dinners are 
dreadful good. — So, good morning, gentlemen — shall be happy to meet 
again — to-morrow, maybe?'' 

" Thai's fair enough; good morning, sir, — we shall be looking out 
for you." 

Whillaw departed ; but as fre reached the head of the stairs the 
clumsy player was at his elbow. 

"Call in to-night, can't you? he said in a whisper: "if you've a 
mind for a parlnership, we may make a good thing of it." 

44 I'll come if I can," said Whitlaw ; but I've business of all sorts — 
good morning." 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

It will be easily believed that Mr. Jonathan Jeflerson Whillaw sat 
down to Mrs. Bennet's table d'hote \n a very agreeable slate of mind. 
He had, in (ruth, opened his compaign well. Fifteen hundred dollars 
made by a single game at billiards, and that quite a casual one, may 
appear lo sober-minded Europeans as an exageration of probabilities 
too violent to be safely inserted in a narrative professing lo paint exist- 
ing manners; but any sceptic may be easily cured of his doubts by 
making a very few inquiries either at the scene of action or of those 
who are well acquainted with it. As lo Whillaw, be thought the 
transaction so far from being anything at all uncommon — (and yet his 
early experience had been confined wholly to those miniature imitations 
of New Orleans to be found at Natchez) — that he resolved, as Ihe 
thing seemed likely to answer so well, to sacrifice some of the lighter 
pleasures he had promised himself, for the sake of pursuing it sys- 
tematically. 

He had fully intended to have passed this his first evening amidst the 
unceremonious gaiety of a Quadroon ball ; but as he eat his pepper- 
soup, and then refreshed his pallet with free libalionsof Mrs. Bennett's 
admirable Madeira he reasoned upon the heavy loss that might ensue 
from such a sacrifice of time to idle pleasure. 



186 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Nevertheless, the temptation was great. He had heard so much of 
the splendour of these entertainments, and the exceeding grace and 
beauty displayed at them, that he still wavered, till at length, his fancy 
being stimulated perhaps by the inspiring wine, he determined to in- 
dulge himself in gazing upon the fair assemblage for an hour, and then 
to pass the rest of the night, as in duty bound, in useful business. 

Before retiring for the purpose of making his toilet, he indulged in 
smoaking a couple of cigars, accompanied by a due proportion of 
whisky-punch; and then feeling himself a little overcome by his voy- 
age; his billiards, and his dinner, he threw his legs comfortably upon 
the chimney-piece and fell fast asleep. 

How long he rested thus is uncertain ; but when he waked, the 
two very gentlemanlike men who had shared his punch were departed, 
and the lamps were burning dim, as the oil which fed them was nearly 
exhausted. He started up, and looking at his watch, saw with ex- 
treme astonishment that he had slept two hours. It was now past nine, 
and he was hastily approaching the bell to ring for a chamber candle, 
when the sight of his own pocket-book lying open upon the carpet 
arrested his eyes and his steps. 

With a beating heart he stooped to seize it. He remembered with 
an instantaneous gleam of satisfaction that his person had been thrown 
during his nap into an attitude as nearly topsy-turvy as possible, and 
he felt that it was likely enough that the pocket-book might have fallen 
out ; but the moment his hand touched it, all soft delusive hope fled 
for ever — his bank notes were gone ! 

Rage and despair seized upon his heart, and divided it betweem 
them. He rang the bell so furiously, that two negroes and one yellow 
man entered the large dining-room by three different doors to know 
his pleasure. 

"Where is your mistress?" he thundered out; "where is the 
woman who keeps this den of thieves ? Call her to me — bring her to 
me this instant, or I'll burn the last atom of wool from your beastly 
scalps before I sleep ! " 

The three slaves retired by their three several doors as he spoke. 

In as short a time as it was well possible for her to enter from the 
drawing-room, the gentle, civil Mrs.Bennet stood before him. 

Whitlaw's eyes rolled fearfully in his head, and he actually foamed 
at the mouth, as he attempted to make her understand the wrong that 
had been done him. 

11 I beg your pardon, sir," she said in the very softest voice imagin- 
able, " but I really cannot understand what it is you say." 

11 Say '."roared the bereaved young man in accents of genuine agony, 
i 'but you shall know and feel it, if you cannot hear. I have been robbed, 
woman ! robbed of two thousand dollars since I entered this room 1 " 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 187 

"Very extraordinary indeed," observed Mrs. Bennet, without in the 
slightest degree deviating from her usual sweet tone. "Pray how 
did it happen, sir?" 

»' It is you must tell that, madam ; and so you shall if there be law 
in the stale. It is you must tell who those two fellows are with the large 
red whiskers— both of them, they had both of them red whiskers." 

11 The two gentlemen with red whiskers, sir? Oh dear ! there will 
not be the least difficulty in the world in telling that, without troubling 
the Stale about it in the least. The tallest is General Holingsworlh ; 
and ihe youngest and shortest, Major Tomlinson." 

" Let them call themselves what they choose, madam, they have 
robbed me of two thousand dollars, and they must give account of it 
either in public or in private." 

' ' Oh dear ! sir, the gentlemen are both of them perfectly well known 
in New Orleans. They are of the very highest standing, and 
would I am sure, be happy to answer, to anybody of their own station, 
any question that could be asked eilher in private or public." 

" It will be long enough, I can tell you, before I shall be of their 
station, which is just neither more nor less than thieves and pickpock- 
ets. I went to sleep in this here room with two thousand dollars in 
noles ; and now lam waked up, I find them all gone, and my pocket- 
book with all my letters left lying on the floor. Them two red-whisk- 
ered men were in the room when I dropped asleep, and now they are 
gone, as well as my notes, and how can I think anything else but that 
they have robbed me? " 

"You must think of course, sir, just whatever you happen to please," 
replied Mrs. Bennet, without for an instant appearing to lose the beau- 
tiful placidity of her temper; " but when gentlemen that are not over- 
much known in the town accuse those who are, of robbery and felony, 
and I know not what besides, it is very likely, I think, that the accu- 
sation will not be greatly attended to." And so saying, the well-dressed, 
graceful lady of Ihe house made a curtsey and departed. 

The unfortunate Whitiaw remained in a state of the most complete 
discomfiture. Mrs. Bennet's very cool way of receiving the intelligence 
of his loss convinced him that there was little or no hope of recover- 
ing it. Whether her indifference proceeded from the frequency of 
such occurrences among the fashionable society of New Orleans, or 
that the two persons he had accused were really beyond and above all 
suspicion, he was at a loss to decide. After meditating on the subject 
in very moody solitude for a long hour, he determined upon inquiring 
for the nearest magistrate, laying a formal statement of the facts be- 
fore him, and insisting upon it that the two individuals upon whom his 
suspicions rested should be summoned to answer to the accusation. 

It was now some hours loo lale for such an application, and he must 



IKS LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

therefore wait with what patience he could for the morrow. Mean- 
while, the unfortunate young man felt that his stale of mind no longer 
filled him for ihe enjoyment of the brillant scene that the ball-room 
was likely lo exhibit ; neither had he at that moment energy to enter 
upon any sharp encounter of wit with the respectable personage who 
had invited him lo an appointment at the billiard-table in the evening. 
So, after taking a few hurried turns about the room, he again rang 
the bell for a candle and a glass of brandy ; and thus enlightened and 
sustained, he retired to his room and his bed, and spent a feverish and 
most miserable night in thinking of his loss while awake, and in 
dreaming of it when for a few short moments he was happy enough lo 
fall asleep. 

He rose early, and, to avoid meeting the suspected thieves or their 
complaisant landlady, repaired lo a coflee-house for his breakfast. 

As soon as it was possible lo present himself before a magistrate, he 
waited upon Squire Grampton, and having very clearly slated the case, 
desired that the two suspected persons should immediately be sum- 
maned before him to undergo an examination. 

Squire Grampton heard him very quietly lo the end, and then said, 
placing both his legs on Ihe table before him, and cleaning his nails 
wilh a penknife, " Pray, young man, what may your name be?" 

"Jonathan Jefferson Whillaw, sir." 

" And where do you come from?" 

" From Paradise Plantation, near Natchez, sir." 

" Is Paradise Plantation your own properly V 

1 ' No, sir, it is not as yet ; but it may be one day." 

"0! and you brought two thousand dollars wilh you to New 
Orlines 1 ?" 

" I don't expect it's necessary for me to certify how much T brought 
wilh me to New Orlines. What I am ready to swear lo, is, that I 
went lo sleep in Mrs. Bennet's dining-room with two thousand dollars 
in notes, last night, in my pocket-book — that Ihe only people in the 
room wilh me were General Holingsworlh and Major Tomlinson, — 
and lhat when I waked, my pocket-book was on the floor, and my 
notes gone." 

Squire Gramplon was reckoned a remarkably good-natured man, 
and lie now proved his just claim to the reputation by laughing heartily. 

"And so, my fine fellow, you calculate upon having General Hol- 
ingsworlh, who is no less a man than surveyor-general of Ihe Alabama 
territory, and Major Tomlinson, oneof Ihe largest slave-holders in the 
State, —you really calculate upon having them called over the coals, 
because you went to sleep and lost your money? — ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! — 
that's fun, at any rate. Now, my raw one, shall I give you a bit of 
advice lhat may chance to be useful? Hold your money fast when 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 160 

you've got it; and when you lose it, never accuse a rich man of being 
the thief — at least not in New Orlines — for it won't answer. And so, 
young man, I wish you a very good morning." 

The good-natured man's look was so decided and peremptory, that 
the unhappy Whillaw saw there was nothing left save to submit. But 
he went forth from the magistrate's house swearing vengeance, not so 
much against him, or even the thieves who had stolen his treasure, as 
against the whole human race, and binding himself in body and soul to 
prey upon the unwary whenever he should meet them, till his loss 
and all the suffering it had cost him should be atoned lor a thousand- 
fold. 

In order the better to arrange the plan of opertions by which this 
resolution should be put in practice, Whillaw on quilling the house 
of Squire Gramplon strode away lowards the Levee ; and for two hours 
solaced himself with a walk beside the father of waters, during which 
he reasoned with all his natural aculeness, and acquired wisdom, upon 
the nature of his actual position, and Ihe uses to which it might be 
applied. 

He remembered with some satisfaction, though assuredly it was ac- 
companied by a sharp pang, that he still had one hundred silver dollars 
in his bag. This was the sum he had coaxed out of his father, and it 
now constituted his entire capital. 

How best could he multiply this a hundredfold ? The proposed 
partnership offered by the clumsy player again occurred to him. At 
first he had not felt greatly disposed to listen to it, because it appeared 
to him evident that he was himself the sharper rogue of the two. It 
was certain, indeed, that his quick eye had detected the latent skill of 
his proposed associate even in the manner by which he lost his game ; 
while he, on the contrary, had been completely deluded by Whillaw's 
well-acted assumption of rustic simplicity. Nevertheless, his after 
by-play when he proposed that Whillaw's notes of hand should be 
taken was by no means contemptible ; not to mention that the very 
act in which he had detected him, of throwing dust in the eyes of llie 
honest Kenluckian, said much in favour of his being admitted to the 
friendship he solicited. 

But the argument which decided the question was the reduced slate 
of Whillaw's finances. " How, in God's name," he muttered with 
closed teeth as he proceeded at an accelerated pace on his return to 
the town, — " how am I to do business on a large scale with I his 
pitiful cash in my pocket for a capital ? — No. — I must begin with this 
fellow anyhow, whatever I may do with him after." 

Nothing that had hitherto passed between them had given any hint 
to Whillaw whether this personage, whom he now greatly desired lo 



190 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

see, made part of the establishment he had visited yesterday, or was, 
like himself, only a visiter there. In either case, it was there only he 
could seek him, and (hither he accordingly repaired. 

It was still early; the field of combat was however swept and pre- 
pared for action, — the windows were duly opened to ventilate the 
chamber, the blinds skilfully arranged to give equal shade and equal 
light to all parts of the table, the marker was in his place, and every- 
thing ready to begin the labours of the day. But though two or three 
sporting-looking characters were already in the room, and one of them 
beguiling the tedijus moments of expectation by practising cannons 
and hazards that to ordinary eyes appeared impossible, no business was 
as yet going forward. 

The entrance of Whillaw occasioned some sensation. He still wore 
the sort of youthful, curious, stranger-seeming look he had assumed 
the day before, and one of the loungers addressed him civilly with — 

M Would you like to play a game, sir ?" 

It is said that a man may serve a good apprenticeship at Natchez 
for any trade practised at New Orleans, and Whitlaw proved the truth 
of this by answering — 

" No, sir, thank ye, not now, because I've got business to do with 
one as I expect to meet here." 

In no country of the world do hawks willingly set about pick- 
ing out hawks' eyes ; and our hero had no more inclination to make 
a trial of skill with this man, than he would with Whillaw had he 
known him. 

Having looked at every individual present, and satisfied himself 
that the person he sought was not among them, Whillaw left the 
room and descended the stairs ; but ere he reached the door of Ihe 
house, the clumsy player appeared issuing from the side door into the 
passage. Their eyes met, and the stranger stepped forward to 
meet him. 

M So ! good day, sir. Would you like a glass this morning ? 
If you'd please to walk this way, I expect we might be convenient for 
a few minules' talk." 

Whillaw nodded in token of assent, and followed him in silence to 
a small room at the back of the building. It appeared expressly filled 
up for tete-a-tete consultations like the present ; for it held one little 
table, on which were placed two glasses, and a decanter of whiskey 
between them, flanked by two chairs and a spittoon. 

" You came over that chap handsome yesterday," said Whillaw's 
new acquaintance, sealing himself on one of the chairs and pointing 
out the other to him. " 'Tis seldom as I'm caught, but I'll be d — d if 
I didn't take you for a green one." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 191 

" You weren't that slow neither, at last," replied Whitlaw, 
laughing. " I expect you caught me out as soon as I handled the 
tools'?" 

" Did I ? — I calculate so. But 'tis few would have been so fine as 
you was over my play. There's lots of (irsl-rate hands, that if they 
hadn't known me, would have watched me play that game, and never 
slumped me as you did." 

These mutual compliments naturally paved the way for very confi- 
dential conversation, in which there was much more frankness and 
sincere avowal of principles and practice than are often found between 
such slight acquaintance. At length, the New Orleans professor, 
whose name was Crabshawly, expressed himself thus : 

" I told you plump yesterday, Mr. Whitlaw," (for, among other 
unreserved avowals, they had mutually communicated their names,) 
**■ that 1 was willing to enter partnership with you, and I don't see no 
reason to draw back now. Only, as you swept stakes so clear yester- 
day, you may guess maybe, that you don't want no help from nobody; 
bulbide a spell at New Orlines, and you'll see that won't go safe and 
smooth for a long run." 

" I have no doubt that you speak correct, Mr. Crabshawly," replied 
Whitlaw. I've done business enough myself, in a small way, up the 
country, to be up to that. But I should have thought that you had 
got hands enough in New Orlines, without looking out so sharp for 
new-comers." 

"Natural enough you should think that, Mr. Whitlaw; and in 
honest truth, and without flattery, I must tell you that it don't chance 
over often that a new-comer would suit as a partner. But I'll be 
frank at once and tell you what it is. You see it most part happens 
that gentlemen of the profession are known, more or less, to the sport- 
ing gentry in and about the town, and then they grows shy, and 
though they'd most times sooner lose than not play, they won't go it 
boldly, and one must be at it sometimes a mortal long spell at a lime 
before one makes a day's work ; so that a fresh man that knows his 
tools, and understands how to look new, is worth money. You don't 
play that bad neither, I can tell you, for one that's not bred at New 
Orlines." 

" I never play for what I can't make, you see, Mr. Crabshawly ; and 
that's a mastership over one's-self that I expect many haven't got, and 
so I count my game surer than most men's, especially for the bets as 
runs upon the strokes; but I've no manner of objection to go shares 
with an understanding man like yourself, who may beat me a game or 
two before them as may like to try their chance after. I expect there 
must be company by this : shall we gof 

" No, no, Mr. Whitlaw; the New Orlines men of fashion bean't 



192 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

never early of a morning. There's no money worth winning there as 
yet, I'll answer for it; and besides, we must make our understanding 
more perfect, I expect, before we commences regular together. Do 
you undertake to give me half of all you win, if I give my time, ex- 
perience, and talents, to poke the gudgeons into your net? I expect 
that's the question put fair, Mr. Whillaw : and now, sir, for your 
answer." 

Whitlaw paused for a minute or two, and then said bluntly: V I'll 
tell you fairly, Mr. Crabshawly, that I think I ought to try a spell be- 
fore I do agree to that. You saw what I made yesterday ; and wouldn't 
it go a little against the grain, d'ye think, to have to pay over the half of 
that to another?" 

" And how much of that, young man, did you bag, only for my 
speaking that word about the notes? If you've a mind to try, why try, 
that's all I say; but if it don't answer, you mustn't be after expecting 
I'll be ready to offer the same terms after your newness is gone off." 

Whillaw felt quite aware that it would be far belter to have Crab- 
shawly for a friend than an enemy; but ere he finally accepted his 
proposal, lie deemed it judicious to appear a little longer in doubt. 
While stretching out his legs and rubbing his chin in order to make this 
doubt appear, the idea struck him, that as law and justice could not 
help him to recover what he had lost, it was possible that knavery might ; 
so turning to his companion with the air of a man who had at length 
decided a difficult question, he said, 

V Well then, hear me, Mr. Crabshawly, and patiently, and I expect 
we shall come to an understanding. I am willing to agree to your terms : 
you shall have the half of all I make upstairs, provided you are always 
there when I want you, and always ready to play into my hands as 
your head and mine together can best contrive; and provided too that 
you find out, and will show up for me, all the best chaps in the place 
fur me to hook-on to, and bring 'em here." 

V Agreed!" replied Crabshawly, " 'lis a match; and lean do that 
last job for you first-rate, for there arn't a man that's got a hundred 
dollars to lose but what I knows him. And now, let's just scratch a 
bit of an agreement between us, to make all clear on both sides." 

" Devil a bit of that, my friend, I promise you !" returned Whillaw 
sharply. " There's a saying, you know — ' Honour among . . . .' 
and we must one and both trust to that or nothing : but as for signing 
and sealing, that's what I don't deal in." 

It is probable that the wisdom manifested by the young man in this 
very decided answer raised his character as an "understanding chap " so 
high in the estimation of his new associate as to atone for the biunlness 
of the refusal; for he exhibited no resentment whatever and only re- 
plied with a wink and a nod, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 193 

11 Very well, Whitlaw : I expect we be pretty nearly up to one an- 
other." 

" I expect we be, Crabshawly/' was the rejoinder, and the affair 
was settled. 

Crabshawly now rose, saying, " Well, now we may mount if you 
please : but we're neither friends nor acquaintance upstairs, remember.'' 

" Thank ye for nothing, my friend," replied Whitlaw; " that's 
taking me for green with a vengeance ! But stop one moment, will you, 
while I jest ask you a word about two strutting fellows that I dined 
with at Mrs. Bennet's boarding-house yesterday. I expect they might 
turn out good for something, if I could scrape acquaintance with 'em. 
One's called General Holingsworth, and the other Major Tomlinson." 

" I know 'em, I know 'em, considerable well," replied Crabshawly. 
1 ■ Money they've got to lose, that's a fact, and play of all kinds comes as 
natural to 'em both as to a kitten ; but I dubiate if they arn't over 
much in our own line to be worth much. I don't mean they're that 
professional neither; but they're up to a thing or two, I promise ye." 

" [ expect so," said poor Whitlaw, with a sigh, which if he had not 
checked it in time, might have been mistaken for a groan. The in- 
formation he had received, however, pleased him well; and eager as 
his new comrade was becoming for an immediate trial of their joint 
skill, Whitlaw told him he could not set-to for an hour or so, as he 
had just recollected business that must be attended to first. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The decided and violent accusation which Whitlaw had only a few 
hours before brought against General Holingsworth and Major Tom- 
linson before the magistrate, and still more perhaps (he attack he had 
made upon them through the ears of their gentle landlady the preced- 
ing evening, would to any one but himself have appeared to present an 
insuperable obstacle to his cultivating any further acquaintance with 
these two gentlemen. But he trusted to his genius lo overcome this, 
as well as all minor difficulties that might intervene to prevent the exe- 
cution of a plan which he confidently hoped would both redeem and 
revenge his loss. 

Whitlaw entertained not the slightest doubt that these two red- 
whiskered gentlemen were the thieves who had robbed him ; and he 
certainly had very good reasons for coming to this conclusion. 

He well remembered having pressed his precious pocket-book 

13 



■i™ 



194 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

against bis heart, when preparing to enjoy himself in his favourite 
after-dinner altitude, after all the parly except these two individuals 
had retired ; he remembered feeling it, and even giving it a little push 
downward into the securest corner of the recess that held it, and it 
was, according to his judgment, impossible to doubt that his compa- 
nions and no other were the abductors of his treasure. 

Full of this persuasion, his first care on re-entering Mrs. Bennel's 
mansion was to request permission to speak to her. 

She obeyed his summons with but short delay ; but though the 
expression of her "fair round face" varied but slightly from that 
eternal sweetness with which" her gentlemen" were always received, 
still the acute eye of Whillaw descried something in her soft grey eye, 
that, like the grain in the blue expanse of heaven so threatening to the 
mariner, seemed to foretell a coming storm. 

Had he been less sure that he possessed the power to quell it, this 
ffiight have alarmed him more. As it was, he approached her with 
his best smile, and said — 

"I hope you will forgive me, my good lady, for the foolish blun- 
der I made last night ; — I really feel ashamed to think of it : but you 
always look so kind and so meek-tempered, Mrs. Bennet, that I trust 
you will not only forgive me yourself, but make my apology to 
the two gentlemen concerned, for what I was mad enough to say 
about them." 

All trace of anger disappeared from the smooth face of Mrs. Bennet 
as these words greeted her ear, and with one of her prettiest smiles 
she said — 

11 Indeed, sir, I am very glad to hear you speak so ; I was quite 
sure it must be some mistake. I hope you have found your money, 
sir ?" 

" No, Mrs. Bennet. I have not found my money, but I have found 
what was next best — 1 have found out where I lost it. I am afraid, 
madam, you won't think the belter of me when I tell you that I was 
silly enough to go to a billiard-table for half an hour before dinner 
yesterday — and I won, I am almost ashamed to say it, a mailer of 
twenty dollars. Well, Mrs. Bennet. I took out my pocket-book, 
ma'am, that my father gave me, with the money that I was to pay 
away for him— that is to say, part of it, for by good luck the largest 
sum I've got to pay was in my trunk ; but I was fool enough, ma'am, 
to lake oul my pocket-book to put my winnings in, and down I laid it 
for a minute or two — 'twas but a minute or two, Mrs. Bennet — upon 
the corner of the table, while I was counting out some silver change 
to make it square with the gentleman that paid me. When this was 
done, I took Ihe pocket-book up again, but for certain never thought 
of looking into it. Well. Ibis morning, after I had made such a fool 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 195 

of myself as to go to the magistrate, down yonder, about my foolish 
suspicion of Ihese gentlemen, I went again to the billiard-table, hoping 
to win a lillle more towards making up my heavy loss ; but while I 
was wailing for the table, an old genlleman said to me — ' Wasn't you 
the gentleman,' says he, 'as put your pocket-book down for a minute 
yesterday ?' — and 1 thought for a minute and answered, ' Yes, that's a 
fact.' Upon which he said, ' And have you looked at it since, sir?' 
and I said, 'Yes, indeed, and all my money is gone.' 'I thought 
so,' said the old genlleman, walking away, ' and let me advise you, 
young man, never again to put your pocket-book out of your hand at 
a billiard— table.* So you see, Mrs. Bennet, the thing is as clear as 
light, and all I can do now is to beg pardon for my foolish suspicions. 
Will you tell all ihis to the gentlemen ? — and do you think they will 
forgive me ?" 

All this was said with an air of so much youthful simplicity, that the 
good lady not only promised to set every thing right with her lodgers, 
butdeclared herself deeply concerned for the loss her new acquain- 
tance had sustained ; and. assured him that the general and the major, 
far from resenting what had happened, would be the most likely men 
in the world to endeavour to help him if any thing could be done for 
the recovery of his money or the punishment of the thief. 

" And when do you think I could see them, madam, to receive their 
forgiveness?" said Whillaw. 

"They mostly comes in to take a glass of wine and an oyster, sir, 
for their nooning, and it must be near upon the usual lime." 

"Where do they lake it, Mrs. Bennet? — in the dining-parlour?" 

" Yes sir, always. Be sure that ihe clolh is laid, and every 
thing ready by now. Will you be pleased to walk in there, sir, 
and see ?" 

" Why, to tell you the truth, Mrs. Bennet, I would much rather 
see them by themselves first : I should not have Ihe face lo mention 
my folly before all the other boarders." 

"Dear sir, pray don't vex yourself any more about it. But there's Ihe 
general's voice this minute, I'll run and tell him ; and if you'll be 
pleased to bide here a spell, I'll answer for bringing him to you, — 
and ihe major, too, 'lis likely, for ihey mostly goes and comes 
together." 

Mrs. Bennet buslled out of the room, and in about ten minutes re- 
turned again, accompanied, as she had predicled, by both Ihe whis- 
kered gentlemen ; and having shown Ihem in, she discreetly retired 
again and shut the door. 

Few men so young as Whillaw would have been able to go so 
steadily through the scene that followed as he did ; but nature had 

13* 



1&6 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

gifted him with so decided a talent for dissimulation, that instead of 
pain or difficulty, it was really pleasure and sport to him. 

The general and the major listened to his apology, as well as to the 
simple and juvenile history which followed it, very attentively and 
very civilly. They both begged to assure him that they retained not 
the slightest feeling of resentment, that nothing could be so natural 
as the blunder he had made, and that they sincerely hoped he would 
be able eventually to discover the real perpetrator of this abominable 
action. 

After all these fluent civilities had been spoken and listened to, the 
major, who had a pair of very keen grey eyes in his head, began with 
great politeness what Whillaw knew well enough was a sort of cross- 
examination of the history he had just delivered. 

" I should hope, indeed," he said, " that this discovery will not be 
very difficult ; for if this old gentleman you mention saw some one 
take up your pocket-book, I suppose he would have no difficulty in 
identifying him." 

" No, no, my dear sir," said Whillaw, shaking his head with the 
most innocent look in the world ; " the old gentleman didn't saj that 
— I wish he had ! No ; I asked him if he saw anybody touch it, and 
he told me he had not ; but that there were fingers in that room that 
could whip notes out of a pocket-book in no lime — and sure enough 
he was right." 

"What notes had you, sir, in your pocket-book when you laid it 
down?" continued the curious Major Tomlinson. 

" Exactly two thousand dollars, major." 

" I Ihink you said that you won twenty dollars : was that paid you 
in notes?" 

"Ay, there was the mischief! — When I left home, gentlemen, I 
had two thousand and twenty dollars exact in my pocket, without 
counting other money ; one hundred and twenty in silver, and the 
rest in notes. Well, you see, I won twenty dollars from a man I 
played with — an uncommon stupid player he was, to be sure," — (here 
the general winked his eye at the major, which Whillaw perceived 
more plainly than the person for whom it was intended,) " uncom- 
mon stupid, and 1 beat him, you see, and he gave me a great bill of a 
hundred dollars — and I was to give him change of course — and I had, 
you see, to lake out this great bag," (drawing the canvass bag from his 
pocket), "and to count out eighty silver dollars upon the table. It 
must have been while I was doing this, and it wasn't long neither, that 
my notes were taken." 

This explanation appeared to be satisfactory in every way to his at- 
tentive auditors ; and after it was concluded, they expressed so much 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 107 

kindness and concern, that when the trio entered the dining-room 
together to partake the nooning so liberally spread there, the amiable 
Mrs. Bennet had the satisfaction of remarking that there was every ap- 
pearance of friendship and good fellowship between them. 

It seemed, indeed, that the circumstance which had been at first 
likely to produce such hostile consequences was now producing a very 
contrary effect ; for after some social interchange of their respective 
wines, and sundry other civilities, they all agreed lo go out together, 
in order, as the two red-whiskered gentlemen observed, lo show the 
young stranger all that was best worth seeing in New Orleans. 

They first directed their steps towards the part of the town where tho 
shops most attractive to the ladies were situated, and thereby were 
enabled to point out to their new friend some of the most beautiful 
women in the world. But while indulging themselves and him in this 
agreeable lounge, they led the conversation to the subject of play. 

" For my part," said Major Tomlinson, " I won't deny that I love 
play ; but I have infernal luck, that's a fact, and I've lost a d — d sight 
of money since I've been here." 

" You don't say so !" said Whitlaw with a look of great pity and 
kindness. 

" True, upon my soul ! but I expect I must have grey hairs on my 
head before I'm cured ; and the cotton bales must pay for it, that's 
all." 

" I'm afraid, for my part, that I've a few grey hairs already," ob- 
served the general, laughing; "bull can't say 1 should altogether 
like to leave off play as yet, — 'lis a devilish fine manly amusement, and 
that's a fact — but of course it's only fit for gentlemen who have got 
wherewithal lo pay. I'm afraid, Mr. Whitlaw, this is a pleasure lhat 
you must forego, after your d — d unlucky loss. You must be pretty 
well cleared out, I take il?" 

"Not so bad as that neither," said Whitlaw, laughing; "I've 
enough of father's notes in my trunk still, though I won't say but what 
they are meant for other mailers. However, as I see lhat my play is 
a deal better than some, I think lhat my loss is a reason the more for 
my playing, for I expect I might likely enough win again." 

" To be sure you might," said the major ; "why not ? As far as I 
see, the play here is nothing at all particular for skill : I've seen play 
quite as good, I expect, at Charlestown. What say you, general ? 'tis 
unaccountable hot this morning — shall we go and try our luck for an 
hour?" 

" With all my heart, major, if Mr. Whitlaw has no objection." 
" W T hy, I don't see why I should," said Whitlaw, "seeing that the 
only time I did play I won ; and of course, if I do indulge myself 
with a game, it's a great privilege lo go to the table with gentlemen of 



198 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

respectability. However," he added, laughing, "I expect I should 
like to play that same chap too if I happened to meet him, for I feel 
pretty sure I should beat him again. However, if I don't meet wilh 
him, I'd greatly rather play with either of you than with a stranger ; 
though it's likely enough you'd be too hard forme." 

" I don't know that, Mr. Whillaw," said the major ; " I can't say 
that I've much cause to boast this year. However, at any rale we'll 
have a try — not thai I'll put you out of the way of a good thing if you 
meet him you played yesterday." 

" But what table are we to go to ?" inquired the general. 

" Let's go to that one by the French Theatre," replied Whillaw, 
"if it's all one to you, because it's Ihere only I can hope to meet 
my man, you know ; and I expect I'll make something if I do meet 
him." 

"Certainly, by all means," said the general; "I'm sure it's all 
one to Tomlinson and me, so we do but get a game or two." 

To the table near the theatre therefore they went ; and on entering 
the billiard-room, the first face lhat met Iheeye of Whillaw was that 
of Crabshawly. One glance, a very slight one, was exchanged between 
them ; and ihen, each remaining in different parls of the room, trusted 
to each other's wit, for finding the means whereby they might mutually 
serve the common cause. 

A game was going on which Whillaw perceived to be a very un- 
equal one. "That's a good hard fight, general, I expect — isn't it?" 

"Why that's as may be lo the parties, I haven't observed them 
much as yet," was the reply, made with about as much honesty as the 
remark lhat produced it. " But I wish they'd have done with it," con- 
tinued Flolingsworth, "that we might have a bit of a try together." 

After some farther wailing, Ihe general and Whillaw got possession 
of the table. Major Tomlinson found means lo exchange a word or 
two with his friend; and at Ihe same moment Crabshawly skirled 
round, and continued with at least equal dexterity lo give and receive 
tokens of intelligence on the other side. Could Asmodeus have con- 
templated that chamber, and read ihe Ihoughls lhat were at work 
there, his demonship might have found wherewithal to make exceed- 
ingly merry. On this occasion, it appeared to be Crabshawly's cue to 
seem sharp-wilted, and on the alert to take advantage of the rustic 
W T hillaw's simplicity. 

"You are going lo play again, are you?" said he when Whitlaw 
took his place at the table. 

"Yes, I am, sir ; and you shall see that I won't lose the credit I've 
gained. I was half in a fright when I played first; but now I find 
what I can do, and you shall see lhat I'll play a deal better than I 
did then." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 199 

» Very likely, sir," replied the other with exaclly the species of fine 
sneer calculated to catch the attention of those upon whom it was in- 
tended to work. "Very likely; but I hale to stand idle, and as I 
was in luck yesterday, I can afford to risk a little to-day ; so I'll bet a 
hundred dollars on the gentleman you're going to play with, if you'll 
take it." 

"Well, now," said Whillaw, " I don't know what I ought to say 
to that. I have'nt seen the general play yet ; and how do I know 
but he may do me?" ^ 

"Very true, very true," cried Tomlinson in a considerate and 
friendly lone. " Take my advice, Mr. Whillaw, and don't bet high 
till you've tried your strength. The general is a prelty considerable 
player, and you are but a young hand, any how." 

" Now that's what I call friendly," cried Whillaw: " and so, sir," 
he added, turning to Crabshawly, "I'll bet you ten dollars on this 
first game, and not a cent more." 

The game began; and to Crabshawly, who thoroughly understood 
what was going on, it was not only very interesting as it concerned his 
own profit, but exceedingly amusing. The skill displayed was not 
shown so much in the winning or even losing the game, as in the 
clever efforts on each side to discover the real strength of the adver- 
sary. And herein my hero had a very decided advantage ; for he 
came to the combat with a tolerably correct notion as to who and what 
his opponents were, whilst all they knew of him was calculated to 
lead them astray as widely as possible. 

Whillaw of course won the game, and affecled the most extrava- 
gant triumph upon it, declaring himself ready and willing to hazard 
the last dollar in his possession upon anolher. He was quite aware 
that General Holingsworth had permitted him to win ; but neverthe- 
less he suspected that his best play was not more sure lhan that of his 
late Kenluckian adversary : he saw that in steadiness of hand Ihe ad- 
vantage was greally on his own side, and therefore determined if pos- 
sible to make the next game settle the heavy account between him and 
his new friends. 

The room was very full, and Crabshawly clearly proved his just 
right to the terms he demanded on entering upon the partnership, by 
the manner in which he contrived to draw the altention of those 
"who had money to lose" upon Ihe wrong-headed young novice who 
was boasting both of his skill and his cash with what appeared to 
be the most reckless boldness and presumption. The consequence 
was, thai Whillaw, who watched and caught the eye of every one 
disposed lo lake a share in ileecinghim with as much skilful quickness 
as the most practised auctioneer, began Ihe game wilh bets thai 
amounted lo near three thousand dollars. If he won this, his loss. 



200 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

after dividing with his associate, would be nearly covered : but as the 
two gentlemen, whom he still felt firmly convinced were sporting 
upon his own money, had not staked more than five hundred each, he 
would by no means have^een fully satisfied by such a result; and ac- 
cordingly he risked, with a degree of temerity that Crabshawly wit- 
nessed in trembling, the loss of the whole sum, in the hope of indulg- 
ing his revenge as much as his avarice in leading them on to risk more 
largely. 

The first stroke was played by General Hoi ings worth, and was 
made with perfect success. Whitlaw looked at him, and uttered an 
oath J that seemed to express alarm. He looked loo, just as he was 
about to play, both at him and at the major, and read in the eyes of 
each a sort of scrutinising earnestness which led him to think they 
half suspected his rustic freshness. Far from being alarmed, how- 
ever, he only felt the more strongly roused to exertion. He had on 
all such points unbounded confidence in himself: there was within him 
a fund of conscious cunning that it was his greatest pleasure to draw 
upon, and the glance of suspicion which he thought he read in the 
eyes of his adversaries but served to prick the sides of his intent, and 
send him onward in his trickery with renewed energy. 

It would be but tedious to the reader were all the minute circum- 
stances recounted by which the wily Whitlaw led on his opponents to 
the point he wished ; but it was done with such consummate skill, 
that even Crabshawly became alarmed, more than once feeling stag- 
gered and doubtful : nor was it till the hero of my tale stood trium- 
phantly the winner of the enormous stake he had so cleverly con- 
trived to play for, that this respectable person felt at all sure that he 
should pocket the half of it. 

The room was in an uproar, — it was long since so many knowing 
ones had been taken in : but even to the last, amidst the intoxicating 
joy of success, and the taunting expressions of suspicion as to his cha- 
racter, which were whispered so as well enough to meet his ear, 
Whitlaw sustained his assumed simplicity to admiration ; and it is 
probable that among the twenty-five persons present, more than two- 
thirds of whom were losers, there was not a single one except Crab- 
shawly who felt quite sure at last whether the game had been won by 
luck or skill. 

"We will settle when we get home," said Major Tomlinson, 
addressing Whitlaw with every appearance of easy good humour; 
though if in truth he shared in the plunder of the pocket-book, his 
present loss more than doubled that gain — 

"That will be the best way, general, with you too," observed 
Whitlaw as he nodded assent. 

The other winnings were gathered in on the spot with the usual 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 201 

celerity attending such transactions, wherein the readiness to make 
payment seems in every person concerned to be in pretty exact propor- 
tion to the tardiness with which the same process is performed to their 
tradespeople. So great is the difference between honourable debts 
and debts of honour ! 

Before leaving the room, Whillaw received notes to the amount of 
four thousand dollars; and, ere he quitted the building, Mr. Crab- 
shawly contrived very skilfully to make an opportunity of demanding 
the half of it. 

"You shall have more, my fine fellow," said Whillaw gaily, 
"I will pay you down at once the half of what the noble general 
and major have to pay me. Their money I shall have an especial 
and fanciful value for, and I will share it with no one." 

This was not an arrangement that could be reasonably objected to, 
and accordingly Mr. Crabshawly had the salisfaclion of receiving ere 
he parted with his valuable friend very nearly the whole four thou- 
sand dollars he had pocketed. 

As Whillaw again put up his empty pocket-book, something like a 
qualm come over him, lest Mrs. Bennel's fashionable lodgers should 
escape him. It was true that he had been assured of their wealth and 
standing by many; yet the fact of their having jointly abstracted Ihe 
notes that pocket-book had yesterday contained, which he was much 
too sagacious to doubt, now seemed as he again meditated upon illo 
offer an incongruity almost too violent to credit, when taken in con- 
junction with their high consideration in New Orleans. But he soon 
learned that these apparent contradictions might exist perfectly well 
together, and with a feeling of exceeding joy he once more perceived 
the two red-whiskered gentlemen take their honoured seats, one on 
each side the amiable and ever-gentle Mrs. Bennet. 

As soon as the dinner was ended, the company retired as before; 
and then, if any doubts still remained upon Mr. Whitlaw'smind upon 
the possible identity of persons who could steal a purse one day and 
pay a gambling debt the next, it was removed by the very satisfactory 
seltlemcn of the morning's transaction. 

While carefully and deliberately counting the notes he had receiv- 
ed, and placing them one by one with rather ostentatious satisfaction 
in his pocket-book, he said with a very expressive smile, 

"Well now, gentlemen, I'm not that sure, after all, that I'm any such 
unaccountable fine player ; but somehow I never lose money but I'm 
cock-a-hoop till I get it back again, and nothing slops me. If I hadn't 
lost them two thousand dollars out of my pocket-book, you may be 
certain sure I shouldn't be putting these four thousand into it. But 
that's always my way." 

The general looked at the major, and the major looked at the gene- 



202 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

ral, but neilher of them spoke ; and the trio immediately after sepa- 
rated, wilh no particular wish probably to find themselves together again. 
Mrs. Bennet aiso declared herself "altogether glad," when she com- 
municated io the party who assembled at breakfast on the following 
morning, that " the young chap who came up from Natchey way had 
paid Ins week and was off." 

It is not necessary to follow our hero through any more of his gam- 
bling transactions. Enough has been already related to show the 
spirit and style in which he played ; and when'the reader is informed 
that his subsequent success, though it sometimes varied, was such as 
to send him home, notwithstanding his very liberal spirit of self-indul- 
gence, \\ith much more money than he brought out, the affectionate 
interest naturally felt for him will, it is hoped, be fully satisfied. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

We must now follow Whitlaw to other scenes. Having with his 
constitutional discretion and forethought, removed from Mrs. Bennet's 
for fear he might again fall asleep in her dining-room, he once more 
fixed himself at a boarding-house ; and very reasonably conceiving that 
the money he had made entitled him to an evening's recreation, he de- 
cided upon going to a splendid ball which was to take place that night, 
where no ladies were admitted but quadroons, and no gentlemen re- 
fused who could pay for their tickets except blacks. 

To an European eye the female part of the assembly would have 
suggested ideas of peculiar elegance and refinement. There is a flexile 
grace, a languid gentleness, a subdued and quiet softness, in the looks, 
movements, and manners of quadroons, which to those who know not 
their history, and share not in the strange and incomprehensible feel- 
ing which holds them indiscriminately as a race apart, despised, and 
contemned, let their personal and individual qualities be what they 
may, must ever have a powerful charm. 

But to Whitlaw the fair pageant, though certainly not without its 
attractions, seemed the signal for letting loose all the worst feelings 
and passions of his nature. He stood gazing on the lovely groups with 
the boastful pride of a low-minded tyrant, who glories in the con- 
sciousness that he may insult with impunity all whom he beholds. 

Among many other accomplishments for which this beautiful but 
most unfortunate race are celebrated, their dancing is one of the most 
remarkable ; and it has been said that a well-grouped quadroon qua- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW 203 

drilleatNew Orleans might rival in grace the most successful figure- 
dance ever exhibited at " le grand Opera." Unfortunately for Whit- 
law, the art of dancing was not one of those which he had cultivated ; 
and though he certainly would not ha>e scrupled to put out a score 
of dark-eyed beauties in their graceful measure if by so doing he could 
have in any degree amused himself, he thought that on the present oc- 
casion he should be more gratified by seeing them go right than in 
contriving to make them go wrong. He therefore sal himself down 
on a well-cushioned sofa, with the intention of deciding very much at 
his ease which was the most lovely girl in the room. 

Some pretty and piteous episodes might be here indulged in descrip- 
tion of individual loveliness and of gentle sweetness, that not even the 
iron fate which legally doomed them all to infamy from the hour they 
first drew breath could destroy. But wide as is the field for the purest 
sympathy and the holiest sorrow, it cannot be entered upon without the 
risk of encountering scenes from which the eye of human virtue must 
turn aside ; while we may well believe that " the recording angel as he 
writes them down will drop a tear upon the words" that tell of frailty 
enforced by law, and affection which no ceremony is sufficiently holy 
to render legitimate. 

This we may surely easily guess at and easily believe ; but far be it 
from any mortal to judge with what species of immortal feeling those 
acts will be registered, by which one portion of the human race compel 
by law another portion to infamy and sin. 

Leaving therefore all allusion to the adventures of the evening in 
which any of the graceful groups that danced before him were so un- 
fortunate as to attract Mr. Whillaw's particular attention, we must 
pass to a circumstance of a different kind, which soon obliged him to 
forget for the moment everything else. 

It was in passing from the ball-room to the bar, at which refresh- 
ments of all kinds were furnished, that Whiilaw was arrested in his 
progress by a hand laid not very lightly on his shoulder. He sud- 
denly turned, and encountered the well-known face of Hogslown, who 
has already been introduced to the reader at Natchez when forcing 
himself upon the notice of Edward Bligh. 

" So here you are, my man !" exclaimed he. " The colonel told 
me I should be sure to find you. — Fine work we are likely to have, 
arn't we?" 

Whitlaw expressed his ignorance of the particular events to which 
he alluded. 

11 Come this way, Whitlaw, for a spell, will you ? — I promised the 
colonel to tell you everything; and I comprehend by him that our 
errands here — yours and mine, I mean — arn't that unlike. — There, 



204 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

take your glass, pay you levy, and come with me into that snug corner 
there. 

Whillaw obeyed this directions very literally, and followed him. 

" Well, I say, Whillaw," resumed his Natchez acquaintance, 
" have you heard of the outbreak at Colonel Mirandeau's ? This is the 
second within ten days; and botli comes of reading, and preaching, and 
praying, and such like diabolical exercises; and it comes, too, as I tell 
'em all at Natchez, of that stingy, saving, niggardly, pitiful spirit, that 
makes 'em do anything rather than kill their niggers outright. You 
may scorch 'em, 'lis true, and skin 'em, and welcome, or anything else 
in the torture line that comes into your head ; but there isn't one single 
planter between this and Natchez liberal and patriotic enough to hang 
one of his gang outright." 

"Why, there's few that likes to make away wilh their own stock, 
that's a fact," replied Whillaw. " But what is it, Mr. Hogslown, sir, 
that has happened over at Colonel Mirandeau's? I've been consi- 
derable busy since I arrived, and haven't chanced to hear a word of it." 

"Well, then, it's no joke, I promise you," replied Hogstown. 
"There's been one Bible and five tracls, and two hymn-books found 
hid in some of the nigger-huts on Colonel Mirandeau's plantation. — 
That was a week or ten days ago ; and yesterday as ever was, a young 
nigger, newly purchased in Virginia, was overheard, and right-down 
caught out, while reading out loud to a whole bevy of Ihem a piece of 
a cursed old English newspaper, wilh a lot of infernal stuff in it about 
emancipation. Just think of that, Whillaw, in a nigger-hut in 
Louisiana !" 

" Confound the varmint! — and what was done to 'emf 

"Ay, there's the mischief. They was flogged all round, just as 
many lashes as they could stand without the pulse going; and then 
they was sailed ; and it done 'em no more harm than if they had been 
so many red herrings. But if the colonel had been liberal and only 
hanged three or four of 'em, we should have seen how the rest would 
have quaked. The varmint know the valy of their lives, and 'tis that 
makes 'em so malignant and rebelsome." 

" 'Tis very true, Mr. Hogslown, sir ; but when a man has a gang of 
his own," replied Whillaw, remembering with no lillle feeling of pride 
the three men, seven women, and ten children, that made the glory 
and profit of Mount Etna,— "when a man has once got together a 
gang, you will most times find 'em considerable against losing 'em, 
any how." 

" There's more of profit than patriotism in that notion, Mr. Whit- 
law, you won't deny that, sir. But, however, that's not much to the 
business in hand between us two. I expect that we are both of us 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHIT LAW. 805 

come to New Orlines pretty much in the same line, by what has been 
made known to rne at Paradise Plantation ; only I am engaged for 
the public— the public of Natchez, I mean,— and you, as I lake it, for 
Colonel Dart and nobody else. Now my instructions at starting was 
specially to find you out, and make you comprehend clear and distinct 
what it is we have got to perform." 

Whitlaw was struck, on hearing these words, with the recollection 
of Juno's promise that he should be instructed at New Orleans as to 
what he was to do. Many limes since she spoke the words, he had 
thought of them with what he was now ready to confess was very un- 
becoming scorn, and he proposed to listen to the communications of 
Hogs! own with silent and meek obedience. 

44 In Ihe first place, Mr. Whitlaw, you must be pleased, sir, to 
tell me " 

At this moment a rush of company into the small room in which 
they had placed themselves rendered the continuation of so important 
a conversation impossible, and Ihey mutually agreed that for the re- 
mainder of Ihe evening they would amuse themselves with ihe scene 
they were in, and meet on the morrow in a private room at the hotel 
where Hogstown had taken up his quarters, for ihe purpose of giving 
and receiving both counsel and information on the important business 
which brought them to Ihe city. 



CHAPTER XXXIL 

Whitlaw, notwithstanding the late hours of Ihe preceding even- 
ing, was punctual to his appointment, and found Mr. Hogstown en- 
gaged in examining a daily advertiser, from which he was making me- 
moranda of all the runaway negroes. 

" Good morning, Mr. Whitlaw. Here it is, you see : thirty-one — 
thirty-two — thirty-three; no less than thirty-three cursed runaways 
in this one paper and Ihis one State! I'll be hanged if a man didn't 
ought to chain up every individual one of the black beetles the identical 
instanl they have done finished iheir work: and if there was a State 
obligement to that effect, we should soon progress towards a betterment 
in our management of them. 

" I have no doubt in the world of it, sir," replied Whitlaw in an ac- 
cent of very earnest sincerity ; " but let us conduct so as to arrive at a 
mutual comprehension of how we can come to an exchangeability of 
usefulness in this matter." 



206 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

11 1 desire no better, Mr. Whillaw; and to take up just where we 
stopped last night, I must tell you, sir, that I have been desired to make 
a requirement of you as to all the light you can throw upon the cha- 
racter and behaviour of a family that neighbours close upon your father's 
store at Mount Etna. They conduct so as to be considerable remarked 
in the country. They are Germans, I expect, Mr. Whillaw ; but as 
for the name, you must excuse my liableness to forget it, seeing it's 
a strange one." 

Whiilaw's eyes emitted a flash of triumph as he listened to this 
speech. A hundred hitler Ihoughts that lay rankling at the bottom of 
his heart starled into fresh life at the idea of being at length able to do 
the haired Sleinmark an injury, and he eagerly answered — 

" Throw a light upon our German neighbours, Mr. Hogstown? — 
There's few that can do it belter, I expect. Why, I've lived within 
a stone's throw of 'em best part of my life, and a dangerous set they are 
as ever imported themselves into a country." 

" That responds considerable to what I've heard, Mr. Whillaw ; 
and I'll just tell you, to avoid any involvement of misunderstanding, 
what the secret managing committee of Natchez holds to be the best 
card they've got lo play at the present alarming crisis. You see, sir, 
'lis as plain as the sun's in heaven, that the planlersand slave-holders, 
considered as a body, are at a great remove from advocating the pun- 
ishment of death among Iheir stock. Now, it is naked fully to fancy 
that there's anything else but death will make an impression any way 
worth publishment to Ihe counlry : and so you see, Mr. Whillaw, if 
slaves mustn't die, while men must, that's a fact. 

"I think I progress towards understanding you, Mr. Hogstown. 
We shall have lo examine, I expect, into the conduct of the Steinmark 
family ; and if it's found to be derogatory to the usual feelings of while 
men and slave-owners, something of the nature of Lynch law might be 
usefully introduced among ihem." 

"Depend upon it, sir, there would be considerable advisability in 
this. It will issue in danger if something is not done to stop the notion 
that's gelling abroad, lhat niggers are to be taught and tutored like 
Christians. It's very illy done of these Germans to cultivate their es- 
tate, as we are told they do, altogether without slaves: which is just as 
much as lo say, lhat slavery isn't needful. I expect Mr. Whillaw, lhat 
you can tell whether this accusation against 'em is repealable or not? 

"The accusation's as true, let who will have made it, as lhat black's 
black, and lhat while's while. I lell you, Mr. Hogstown, I've known 
them for years, and never did a slave do a turn of work for any of 'em 
since in the country they've been." 

"Well, sir, that's satisfactory so far, and not to be contradicted, I 
expect. And now, there's another point, upon which if we can make 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 207 

a hit, I calculate somelhingconsiderable important might issue. There's 
a young fellow that has taken to living at a clearing in the forest some- 
where between Natchez and this German's farm. I don't lake my pay 
for nothing, Mr. Whillaw, and would on no account miss an opportu- 
nity of cultivating any observations that may be useful. 1 had occasion, 
not that long ago, to watch this young fellow, called Bligh, as I under- 
stand, at (he place where he keeps ; I had a fine occasion to watch his 
behavement, when a little nasty slinking nigger was lucky enough to 
make a merriment for some gentlemen of the highest standing in Nat- 
chez. First, he turned deadly pale when they kicked the boy, and then 
he downright hid his face and his eyes, because, I calculate, he couldn't 
bear the seeing the varmint rolled about and in trouble; and last of all, 
though he looked as poor as corn-meal and ditch-water, what did he 
do, but out with his money to get the smut out of the scrape, because 
he'd lost some coppers through the gentlemen's joking. Now, that was 
particular, war'nt it?" 

M Very !" replied Whillaw solemnly. "Go on." 
"Well, sir, I keeped my eye upon him; and when he left the 
store where this happened, I followed round-about fashion, till I saw 
him reading over all the bills posted up about the market concerning the 
sale of niggers, and the runaways, and all the rest of the nigger news. 
Well, sir, I slopped slill a spell, and then I got into a lillle exchange- 
ability of talk with him. As lo his sayings, he was not thai venture- 
some to expose himself; contrarywise, he was curious clever lo keep 
safe, I thought : but he couldn't hide from me that his talk had no 
agreement with his shabby jacket, and I was obligated to conclude that 
he was more or less an impostor. Well, sir, this negro-lover, this 
shabby-dressed and fine spoken youngster, is hand-in-glove with the 
whole Sleinmark family ; and there's some that say he is to marry the 
daughter. Thai's no great matter, certainly, one way nor I'olher ; 
but it's curious singular that this chap, what can't abide the sight of a 
kicked nigger, should be so everlasting intimate with them as won't 
hold a slave, though all the country knows they're rich enough lo have 
a gang of five hundred. Don't you perceive, Mr. Whillaw, how the 
two things hitches together?" 

"Don't I, Mr. Hogstown? I expect I do, sir : and I tell you what, 
though I'm in no hurry lo leave New Orlines, — that is, not before my 
duty and my business is done finished, — yet this is what 1 know and 
am ready lo testify, that nothing I or you either can be after doing 
here will help the cause one quarter so much as blowing up them 
incarnate devils at Reichland, — the Sleinmarks, I mean. If there's 
mischief brewing in one quarter, it comes from Ihem : you may as 
well doubt that a nigger's black. Where will you find another rich 
man as don't own a slave ? and what can it mean, coming as it does 



208 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

too from the d — d Europe side of the water, but emancipation and 
treason ? Maybe we're all of us in a bad way ; I don't know but we 
shall find it so : but this I do know, that if there's any hope left, it 
will be by making an example of those cursed emancipation chaps, the 
young Slcinmarks." 

" Well, sir," replied Hogstown gravely, " I can't but approbate 
the zeal you show; and I shall not fail to report your information and 
your opinion to the gentlemen of our Natchez committee. But you 
see, Mr. Whillaw, (he thing must be done with judgment, and noways 
in a bustle, — at least nol on our parts, that guides the springs, as I 
may say. There will be no objection, of course, that the mob, when 
we set them on their work of doing justice, should be that little degree 
infuriated as may be necessary for the executioning their business ; 
but I would recommend you, sir, to be quite peaceable and reasonable 
in your way of giving evidence, and upon no account seem to have any 
reasons of your own private concernments to urge your speaking, but 
altogether the public good, and love of justice, and respect for our 
glorious constitution, and veneration for the memory of the immortal 
Washington. — and the ever-lo-be-veneraled Jefferson, both of whom 
approved the institution of slavery, and practised it greatly to their own 
comfort and advantage. I beg your pardon, Mr. Whillaw, for taking 
the liberty of advising you, sir; butyouarea young man, and don't 
rightly know perhaps as yet, the vast importance of putting things in a 
right light, particularly when addressing any meeting of the people ; — 
and that, I take it, sir, is what we shall be expected to do, if we enter- 
tain any hopes of gelling up a Lynch-law execution at Natchez." 

"• No offence at all, Mr. Hogstown. Honest men that are true and 
hearty in a cause, like you and I, sir, must not stand upon ceremony 
together, but just speak out what they think ; and so I recommend 
you, first and foremost, to keep your eye upon them Sleinmarks, one 
and all of course, but most particularly upon him as keeps the mill. 
Take my word for it, he is one that will raise the niggers to mutiny if 
any one can — I know him ; and if Lynch-law must be had, 'tis him 
as I'd try the first go upon." 

" You may depend upon it, sir, that your recommendation shall not 
be lost sight of in any degree," replied Hogstown. " And now I think 
we may each go to our separate work, and learn all we can of the 
goings on and intentions of ihe principal slave-holders here. I take 
it for granted that you hive got letters of introduction to some of the 
first planters, for Colonel Dart is a gentleman exceedingly well re- 
spected, and knows the nature of the business we have in hand too 
well not to set you upon getting all the private news on the subject to 
be obtained at New Orlines." 

" Why, yes, Mr. Hogstown, I have got letters pretty considerable. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 209 

Is there anything else, sir, that you can point out as desirable in the 
way of my duty?'' 

" Not at the present moment, Mr. Whitlaw ; but it may be as well 
to meet once a day, I expect. Will you be pleased to call on me here 
again to-morrow, sir? And if we either of us pick up intelligence of 
any kind, the other may profit thereby." 

Whillaw thanked him very cordially for his obliging proposal, and 
having promised to wait upon him on the morrow, took his leave, not 
perhaps altogether pleased at finding that he should for the future be 
really obliged to sacrifice some portion of his precious lime to busi- 
ness, but more than consoled for it by believing that he should be able 
at his return to gratify the hatred he had so long vainly nourished 
against the family of Steinmark. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

When old Juno first imagined the expedient of getting rid of Whit- 
law by sending him off to New Orleans, she was too much delighted 
at the idea to delay the execution of it till she had fabricated in her 
busy brain some errand that might really give him occupation there; 
and his instructions were in consequence so vague, that till the future 
information at which the prophetess had so mysteriously hinted should 
reach him, he very naturally thought he might consider himself as his 
own master. 

When, however, Hogstown crossed his path in the manner describ- 
ed, the superstitious young man doubted not for an instant that it was 
this meeting which had been predicted ; and this persuasion, together 
with the agreeable information respecting the suspicions thrown on the 
Steinmarks, determined him to set about doing what was required of 
him, as far indeed as he comprehended what it was, with all diligence 
and activity. 

The delivery of the letters with which he was charged, was what he 
now determined to set about; and as he walked towards the mansion 
which the geography of the city had taught him was first in order, he 
taxed his memory to recall the various verbal instructions given him 
with each packet, for the purpose of making him acquainted with the 
position and standing of the parties, and to instruct him in the best 
mode of turning each and every of them to protit. The general in- 
structions were clear and intelligible enough, and not easily forgotten ; 
— namely, that in every instance where Colonel Dart's letters obtained 

14 



no LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

him entrance into a family, he was to keep in mind during his inter- 
course with every individual of it, that the object of his journey was to 
ascertain, as nearly as possible, the feelings and opinions of the inha- 
bitants of New Orleans on the stale of the slave population, and of the 
dangers said to threaten the continuance of the system. 

All this he remembered well ; but he remembered also, that not one 
of the six letters he carried was given to him without some special and 
peculiar instructions which the careful and anxious Colonel Dart fancied 
might be useful. 

He opened the whole packet as he walked, and scanned the address 
of each letter, in the hope that the sight of the name and residence might 
recall what it was so essential for him to remember. 

" Monro Barbacuit, Esq." was the name that first met his eye ; and 
it instantly recalled to him an anecdote that Colonel Dart had recounted, 
and of which, as Whitlaw believed, this gentleman was the hero, stat- 
ing that when a partial revolt of slaves on one division of his eslate 
occurred, it had been met and checked by the greatest personal bra- 
very and presence of mind on his part; and that such was the effect of 
this well-timed display of firmness, that not only was no farther danger 
anticipated from that quarter, bu( the example was considered as having 
been of the most signal service throughout the whole neighbourhood. 

" George Washington Bobbin, Esq." followed next. 

" Ay!" thought Whitlaw, " I remember that name too. That's 
the man that was caugtit t'other day changing a lame nigger baby, born 
on his own estate, for a bouncing brat of a piccaniny that belonged to 
a neighbour. But he's curious rich, so nobody says nothing about it; 
and I must take care to make no allusion to healthy children, or any- 
thing of that sort." 

" Adams Byron Chesterfield Higgins, Esq." muttered our hero as 
he continued his progress. " That's him as wants a bill brought into 
Congress, for leave to fit out a few shit>s to make prize of all the craft 
caught otT the coast of Liberia, with licence to dispose of the crews and 
cargo, black or while, at pleasure. That's a fine young fellow 1 success 
to him, any how!" 

" Zerubbabel Theodore Octavius Cobb, Esq. That's a puzzler." 
Whitlaw walked with his eyes fixed on the name, or rather names, for 
several minutes, and then exclaimed, I can't remember one syllable 
about him!" 

The next was a very modest address, — Mr. John Croft. " Oh ! that's 
the man newly come from England to sell that fine estate at Nixlon, 
and we want to buy it a bargain : that's nothing to do with slaves or 
slavery, for the gangs upon it belong to his tenant. I mind all about 
that." 

The sixth and last letter was directed to Brutus Pennyfeather, Esq. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 41! 

and this also brought its own history to his memory, for Mr. Penny- 
feather was a merchant who dealt largely with Colonel Dart for collon. 

His first visit was at the house of Mr. Bobbin. He was ushered with 
a vast deal of Creole pomp into a splendid drawing-room, the furnilure 
of which was no bad specimen of Parisian elegance. The walls of the 
room were half covered with enormous mirrors ; marble tables of all 
soils and sizes displayed a large collection of Sevres china; ottomans, 
sofas, and bergeres were invitingly placed in all parts of the spacious 
room ; and the atmosphere was del iciously scented by tuberoses, orange- 
flowers, and jessamines. The light and heat of the day, which was 
extremely sultry, was only permitted to enter through coloured can- 
vass blinds, continually sprinkled with water on the outside, and 
stretched over an ample balcony filled with the finest flowers. 

On first entering this elegant apartment, Whillaw believed it to be 
quite untenanted, and that deep-seated reverence for wealth which had 
ever been a strong feature in his character caused him to look round 
it with a feeling of respect that almost led him to prostrate himself in a 
salam upon the delicately-tinted matting which covered the floor. It 
was not till the second and more leisurely survey which he took of its 
enviable splendour, that he perceived a very young, little, round, pale, 
black-eyed woman sunk deep into a kangaroo chair with one or her little 
feet dangling from it, and the toe of the other supported on the shoulder of 
a young negro boy fantastically dressed, who sat on the floor before 
her. She was placed in the corner of the room, and a large orange-tree, 
covered with blossoms, so arranged as to form a sort of canopy over 
her. Her altitude was one that might have rendered rising difficult to 
any woman, but to a Creole it was impossible. She therefore clapped 
her miniature white hands together; and though thesound produced was 
scarcely louder than what might have followed a similar concussion be- 
tween two little balls of cotton, it was heard and obeyed by another black 
fairy in the dress of an oriental page, turbaned and trowsered in delicate 
white muslin, with a liny vest of yellow satin, belled with gold. 

She murmured something into the child's ear, who immediately took 
an ivory fan from off a table, and approaching Whillaw, presented 
one end of it to him, and so led him forward towards his mistress, it 
being contrary to Creole etiquette that a white skin should touch the 
hand of a negro. 

At the distance of about two yards from the living but apparently 
immovable footstool, the well-tutored little usher stopped, and with- 
drawing the fan from the hand of the stranger, stood ready to execute 
the next order he should receive, whether it were to advance afauteuil 
for his service, or to lead him back to ihe door by which he entered. 

The little beauty, from amidst her flowing, floating, very loose, and 
very thin white drapery, looked out and up to the handsome face of 

14* 



212 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

our tall hero, and the signal for ihefauteuil was given, but so slightly 
and so silently that it escaped the senses of Whillaw. He understood, 
however, that the chair was intended for him, and he took possession 
of it with perhaps more satisfaction than grace. 

" I have a letter, madam," he began, seeking for his credentials as 
he spoke, — "a letter to Mr. Bobbin from my friend Colonel Dart. 
Will yoube pleased to receive it for him, madam?" 

" Yes, sir, you may give it to me;" and the little white hand was 
extended, or rather raised, about two inches from the lap on which it 
rested. 

It was rather instinct than politeness which made Whillaw start 
forward to place the letter between the delicate fingers prepared to re- 
ceive it; and in doing it, he bent his head so low, that the lady's other 
hand, which rested in a languid, drooping altitude against the side of 
her high chair, while her shoulder supported her head, passed over his 
curls with very little effort, and she said, 

" How your hair curls !— Where do you come from V 

" From Natchez, madam." 

"Natchez! — are all the men handsome there?" 

" Not all, I expect, madam . " 

The little lady laughed immoderately. 

u Oh, you expect ! — that's charming ! — Do sing Yankee Doodle for 
me, will you ? You are so very handsome, that I am quite sure you 
must be good-natured." 

" I should be very happy to do anything lhaf could please you, 
madam," replied Whillaw, who, though half affronted at her request, 
or rather at the manner of it, was enchanted both with her beauty and 
her compliments, — "anything that I could do; but I'm not capable to 
sing, for I don't know how." 

" Oh, what a pity! you would look so handsome when you were 
singing! You don't know that I am Mr. Bobbin's lady? Do I look 
old enough to be married ?" 

" You look like an angel, madam !" was Whillaw's gallant reply. 

Again a fit of violent but very soft-toned laughter waved the light 
drapery which hung like a transparent cloud about the beauty ; but 
suddenly checking herself, she addressed the lillle automaton at her 
feet, in a voice that was as sharp as she could contrive to render her 
languid tones. 

" Tu as bouge, Pompey ! tu auras le fouet." Then raising her 

eyes again to Whillaw, she said, 

" Do you love orange-flowers?" 

" I am sure I shall always love Ihem in future," said Whitlaw, 
directing his eyes to Ihe beautiful blossoms that seemed ready to drop 
upon her pretty head, " for they will always remind me of you." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 213 

She again clapped her little hands, and her negro page entered as 
before, when she again whispered to him, and the child disappeared 
through the open window into (he balcony, from whence lie quickly 
returned with his dingy hands filled wilh delicate orange-blossoms. 

The fair lady made a sign to the child, who was advancing to her 
with them, saying, 

"A lui, bete!" 

Whitlaw, however, put his hands behind him as the page drew near, 
exclaiming, "No! madam, no! — from no hand but your own, and 
least of all from a nigger's ; but if you'll be pleased to give them to me, 
I'll keep them for ever, by G — d !" 

As if it were her doom upon the present occasion to " laugh loud 
laughters three," the youthful mistress of the mansion again gave way 
to mirth, but soon recovered herself and said very obligingly, 

" Well, then, Olinda must give them to you herself, I suppose. 
Come here !" 

Whitlaw drew near with unfeigned satisfaction, and, as if inspired 
by the occasion, actually knelt down beside the footstool negro. 

Olinda looked at him very complacently, and either smelling or 
kissing the flowers she had received from her page, or bolh, she 
placed some of them in his hand, and threw the rest in his face, say- 
ing, 

"There, then! — now you may go, — I will give my husband (he 
letter, and perhaps he will ask you to dinner, — I hope he will. 
Adieu!" And she waved him off wilh the childish air of a little girl 
playing queen. 

In truth the pretty Olinda was still & child in age; and such, if re- 
port say true, are the childish ways of some of the little ladies of New 
Orleans. 

Luckily for young Whitlaw, his head was not one of those likely to 
be turned and over-turned by such pretty fooleries so as to make him. 
forget more serious business, " If I'd nothing else to do," thought 
he, "I might like well enough to waste a few hours in that there 
paradise of a keeping-room. — But now for Mr. Monro Barbacuit ; for, 
if I don't mistake, he lives in the next street." 

He was here fortunate enough to find the person to whom the letter 
he brought was addressed ; and having delivered it, he waited in silence 
while Mr. Barbacuit read the contents. 

"Sit down, sir, sit down," said little Mr. Barbacuit, a pale thin 
personage of five feet four inches and a half. 

"What a flimsy-looking tilde fellow," thought Whitlaw, "to stand 
up so grandly against a gang of nigger rebels!" 

Had our hero's mind been stored wilh classic lore, he would doubt- 
less have exclaimed in some language or other, 



*14 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

" And dwell such mighty souls in little men !" 

But not having this advantage, he only contemplated the comical little 
figure before him with a strong suspicion that the report of his prowess 
must have originated with himself; and the practical inference he 
drew from this conclusion was, that nothing would be so likely lo 
propitiate the friendly feelings of Mr. Barbacuit, as referring to a 
transaction wherein by his own account he had acted so noble a part. 

Having waited therefore till the perusal of the letter was finished, 
he said, while the little man was folding it up, "You perceive, Mr. 
Barbacuit, that all nigger outbreaks are not confined to New Oriines, 
—my friend and employer Colonel Dart lives in constant terror of the 
same. — Ah! sir, I wish we had got you among us!" 

"Good God, sir ! what does that mean?" exclaimed the hero. 
" What could I do, sir? Do you mean that the black malice of the 
varmint would exhaust itself on me? Is that Colonel Dart's notion, 
sir?" 

"Lord, no, sir !" answered Whillaw, quite shocked at having given 
occasion for such a suspicion : "Colonel Dart never dreamed of no 
earthly thing like it. I only meant, sir, that it would be a comfort to 
have such a brave gentleman as you are near us in case of the worst." 

" In case of the worst! — Good God! I to be moving about the 
country just to pop in at a rebellion in case of the worst ! Why, sir, 
I'm thinking of selling all, if it can be done without too horrid a loss, 
and shipping myself off for France, just lo get out of the way of these 
born devils, — that's what I'm after thinking of in case of the worst." 

" I do assure you, sir, replied Whillaw, "I would be much readier 
to help such a valuable gentleman as you out of danger than into it. 
But it is impossible not to keep thinking at times what a fine thing 
bravery is, especially when one hears of such pitiful, mean, cowardly 
tricks as some slave-holders don't scruple to do, gentlemen though 
they are, or ought to be from their standing. But 'tis impossible not 
to glorify a man that will stand up against a roused gang of malignant 
varmint like you did, Mr. Barbacuit, when one likens him to such a 
mean thievish rascal as him as stole his neighbour's thriving piccaniny 
t'other day, and left a crippled one in its place. Warn't that man a 
mean fellow, Mr. Barbacuit ! — and he lobe a slave-holder loo !" 

Mr. Barbacuit's pale complexion assumed a tint of livid blue as he 
listened to these words ; and in the rage and agony which possessed 
him, he pulled the bell violently, though he knew that the summons 
could only bring one or more of the feared and hated race to his suc- 
cour ; but even they would save him from the cool, deliberate insults 
his visiter was pouring upon him. 

'* Show this gentleman out," stammered the master of the mansion ; 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 215 

and as the slave held wide open the door of the room, Whitlaw felt 
that nothing was left him but to walk though it: which in truth he 
did with as little delay as possible, for the thought had struck him 
that he must have unhappily bestowed the speeches intended for the 
bold, fighting queller of riots, upon the peaceful but pitiful kidnapper 
of children. Determined however upon satisfying his mind on the 
subject, he drew a splendid quarter of a dollar from his pocket as he ap- 
proached the door of the house, and slipped it into the negro's hand, 
saying, as he lingered a moment on the steps, 

" I say, blacky, arn't there a good story going about somebody 
liking a straight piccaniny better than a crooked one?" And the words 
being accompanied by a wink and a grin, the thoroughly propitiated 
slave answered with a chuckling He! he! he! " Sure nuff, massa — 
and no lie neder." 

"And 'twas him as done it?" added Whitlaw with an expressive 
action of his thumb, pointing it backwards across the hall. 

"Sure-ly, massa, sure-ly, — he! he! he!" 

Vexed, provoked, and in some degree frightened at his own careless- 
ness, Whitlaw muttered within his teeth as he hurried from the door, 

"D — n their instructions! I wish the old witch was here herself 
to tell me who's who." 

Hardly was the thought formed into words, than the figure of Juno, 
very decently clad, however, but still the figure of Juno, came down a 
side street and stood before him. 

All the floating superstitions of Whitlaw's brain seemed to crowd 
and settle round his heart as he recognised her. She still carried her 
bamboo, but it was now used as a needful walking-stick, to support 
the steps of a feeble-looking but very tidy old w 7 oman. 

It would have been worse than " a misdoubting of Providence," if 
Whitlaw had not availed himself of this seemingly miraculous arrival 
of the counsellor he had wished for. With considerably more than 
usual respect he addressed her — 

" You are just the person, mother, as I wished to see. I am glad 
to see you look so hearty too." 

"And what has Mr. Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw to say to me?'' 
said Juno in return, while a new change seemed to have come over the 
spirit of her vagaries ; for her manner was staid and steady, and her 
accent and pronunciation most punctiliously those of the educated 
English. 

** Why, I want you to tell me — only this street is so unaccountable 
public, — can't I go with you to your lodgings for a spell? 'Twould 
look queer maybe if I took you to mine." 

" The least queer of the two, Mr. Whitlaw, I think; but neither 
is necessary. \i you really have business with me, I can walk be- 



216 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

fore you down this street for about a hundred yards, which will bring 
us into a drying ground — none but black or coloured people are likely 
to be there, so there is no fear of incivility though we should intrude 
on Ihcm. I suspect, Mr. Whillaw, that all business between you and 
I is pretty well over; nevertheless, for old acquaintance' sake, I am 
ready to wait upon you so far." 

" Thank you, Juno, thank you," replied Whitlaw, more than ever 
impressed with the conviction of her supernatural powers; "I will 
follow wherever you please, and thank you too." 

Without farther parley, old Juno set off by the way she came; and 
just at the distance she had described, a large open space received 
them, around which were scattered many small, miserable-looking 
dwellings, inhabited by free negroes and quadroons who took in 
washing. 

"Here, sir, you may say whatever you please," said the old wo- 
man, turning round to him; "nobody is at all likely to hear you, 
and less likely still, if they did, to notice what you say." 

"It's just this, Juno," said Whillaw, in a sort of coaxing accent 
that made the keen-eyed old woman smile, spile of her assumed 
staleliness. " Here are lots of letters, you see, from our colonel : 
and when he gave them to me, he told me a deal about every one of 
them ; — and you, too, if you remember — you told me what was to be 
said to one, and not to another; and, as ill luck would have it, I have 
forgot it all, — or, worse still, Fve gone done mixed it all up in one, 
putting wrong names and things together till I'm in a right-down bad 
fix." 

" Let me see them, sir, if you please.'* 

Whillaw placed the remaining letters in her hand. 

"I've given in two of them already," said he. " The first was to 
Mr. Bobbin, and that did very well, fori saw his wife; but the second 
I made curious bad work of, for I thought that Mr. Barbacuit was the 
gentleman as stood up so against the rebellion, and I complimented 
him about it up sky-high; and, worse than that by half, I talked to 
him of the mean fellow as left the crippled brat in the place of the 
thriving one; and I thought he'd have gone demented, sure enough." 

Not all the decorum and gravity which old Juno was so evidently 
struggling to maintain could resist this anecdote, so well calculated to 
delight her in every way. She laughed till tears rained plenleously 
from her eyes, and her stout bamboo shook beneath the weight she 
threw upon it. Even the frightened Whitlaw caught, the infection, 
and laughed too ; and it was this indeed, rather than the fading away 
of her own mirth, which restored her composure. 

" Well, sir!— respecting which of these names," and she began to 
exomine Iheui as she spoke, " do you wish information ?" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 217 

"All of them, Juno." 

Juno proceeded (o read Ihe titles, which the bright sky of New Or- 
leans enabled her to do, though not without some difficulty, for her 
eyes were not quite so good as they had been ; though, like all her 
faculties, her sight was much less impaired than is usual at her age. 

"Zerubbabel Theodore Octavius Cobb — that's a man whose assis 
tance may be very valuable to you, Mr. Whitlaw, should any com- 
motion among the negroes at Paradise Plantation render it advisable to 
call in assistance. His influence among the coloured people is quite 
astonishing. The very sight of him I should think likely to produce 
a prodigious effect." 

"That's good," replied Whitlaw ; " I'll make much of him, you 
may depend upon it." 

" You will do quite right, sir. — Brutus Pennyfeather. This is the 
person of whom Colonel Dart desired you would request a few of his 
best conditioned slaves at almost any price : do not forget this, Mr. 
Whitlaw, — it may chance to be very important. — Adam Byron Ches- 
terfield Higgins. This is quite a young man, but not perhaps the less 
important for that reason. He has some great and very liberal views 
on many subjects. You must make him understand that Colonel 
Dart enters warmly into all his projects, and is ready to assist him 
with money and interest." 

Whitlaw nodded. " I think I shall remember them all now," 
said he, stretching out his hand for the letters. " There is but one 
more, and that's to the Englishman : I know what I've got to say to 
him well enough." 

The eyes of Juno fell upon the name of Croft at the moment she 
was about to give back the packet. 

" I had forgot this," she said in an altered voice: "This letter is 
useless," she added, tearing it in fragments ; " you have no occasion 
to visit this person at all." 

" That's strange though," said Whitlaw, ''because it was plain to 
me that my calling on Mr. Croft was my most particular business of 
all. This is the man, Juno, who is come over-sea to sell that first- 
rate fine estate that the colonel wants to get hold of, — Nixton, you 
know, Juno — there's no land like it. I shall catch it, I expect, for 
your tearing that letter up." 

"No, sir, no!" cried Juno impatiently; "the colonel has no 
longer any wish to buy that land ; therefore your calling on Mr. 
Croft could only be useless trouble, and wasting time that you might 
turn to better account at New Orleans, Mr. Whitlaw." 

"I expect that's true, too," he replied, perfectly persuaded that she 
was alluding to her occult knowledge of his successful play, and that 
her words predicted continued good fortune. M I won't waste no more 



218 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

time than I can help, I promise you that, Juno ; and so good morning. 
We shall meet again, I suppose, at Paradise Plantation before long ; 
but in case I should want a touch of your help, or your knowledge, 
Juno, or the like, I should like to know where you bide in the city. 
Is it a long remove from here?— I expect not." 

"When you want me, you will find me," replied Juno, with a 
touch of her wonted mysticism. 

"And that's true again, I have no doubt; I don't forget this 
morning, and so good-h'ye." 

Juno gave a silent nod in return, and then waved her bamboo, as 
in days of yore, in sign of dismissal. The signal was immediately 
obeyed, and they parted ; Whillaw pursuing his way to the abode of 
Mr. Pennyfeather, and Juno retreating to the obscure quarter where 
she made her home. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Whitlaw's eagerness to find himself again at the billiard-table was 
very greatly increased by the manner in which he fancied that Juno 
had alluded to the success that would attend him there. Nevertheless, 
he determined for many reasons — among which, perhaps, his secret 
belief that Juno knew all his actions was not the least powerful — to 
deliver his three remaining letters while her instructions respecting 
them were still fresh in his memory. 

As nothing of importance to the narrative occurred at either of the 
houses he visited — as he committed no more blunders, and made ac- 
quaintance with no more dispensers of orange blossoms, we shall 
pass over all that related to them in silence. 

He contrived to get all this business done by an early hour in the 
evening, and then repaired to the neighbourhood of the French The- 
atre, once again to propitiate the goddess he adored. Though it is not 
necessary to follow him there, in order again to witness his skilful dis- 
play of all the talents most valued and best rewarded in that region, it 
may nevertheless be observed in passing that he was again eminently 
successful, as this will serve to explain his disobedience to the last in- 
junctions received from Juno. 

It was while enjoying that delicious wakefulness which sometimes 
results from having too many pleasant thoughts at work within one for 
the approach of sleep to be either wished for or permitted, that our 
hero conceived the magnificent idea that he might perhaps himself 
become the purchaser of the Nixton property. A few more such 



JONATHAN JEFFKKSON WH1TLAVV. 219 

nights and the thing might be done, even if he had a Yankee instead 
of an Englishman to deal with. Even suppose that luck might not con- 
tinue to run quite so much in his favour, he was pretty sure that on 
such security his father might easily be induced to help him " pretty 
considerable :" in short, before his sleeping had succeeded in chasing 
his waking dreams, he had fully decided upon calling on Mr. John 
Croft on the morrow. 

His first sensations on waking were delightful. The present, actual, 
and certain state of his pocket-book, together with the probable and 
future state of his fortune, opened upon his mind as brightly as the sun 
shot through his mosquito curtains ; and he sprang from his bed with 
the alacrity of a refreshed wrestler prepared for new struggles and new 
triumphs. 

Nothing could exceed the delicacy of the breakfast with which he 
opened the history of the day. Having locked up his precious pocket- 
book in his trunk, and locked up his trunk in a closet, and locked up 
the closet in his bed-room, despite the probable anathemas of the slave 
whose task it was to " fix his chamber," he sallied forth, leaving the 
substantial comforts of the boarding-house breakfast behind him, and 
with conscious extravagance, but well-merited indulgence, entered 
the Paris-like saloon of the most celebrated restaurant in New 
Orleans. 

The carte was put into his hands ; and as an English version of its 
contents was considerately appended. Mr. Whitlaw soon saw the 
marble table before him assume an aspect which made him in the in- 
most recesses of his soul do honour to the game of billiards. 

Immediately before him lay a snow-white napkin, enveloping a 
small loaf almost as while ; a baby chicken, hardly exceeding the age 
at which Elia would have chosen his pig, lay fried and cradled amidst 
delicately green corn. To the right, two Maintenon cutlets of the 
same infantine dimensions contrasted their transparent paper clothing 
with the wreath of grilled oysters which surrounded them. To the 
left, exhaling an odour which none but an eater can understand, 
reeked one of those matchless wild-fowl, which to taste, or even to 
dream of with some touch of truth, one must cross the Atlantic. And 
then, here and there, in most admired disorder, but all within reach of 
the commanding hand, stood a cooler crammed with ice, from which 
peeped up a tall thin neck, encircled with a necklace inscribed "Cha- 
blis," — while another, of like fashion, announced itself as Champagne. 
At one corner, slices of pine-apple were laid temptingly on ice ; at 
the answering one appeared figs of most rare quality, but, as if to 
keep them warm instead of cold, each one closely enveloped in three 
or four of its own thick rich leaves ; and in and out among them all 
were sundry minor dainties too numerous to mention, 



220 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

For one long but too fleeting hour did Whitlaw sit before this little 
table ere the glass beside him rang to the (ouch of his knife ; and then 
the fragrant bowl of coffee entered, flanked by the little glass of Cogniac. 
At length the joy was ended, and the bill was paid — almost without a 
sigh ; and Jonathan Jefferson stepped forth in his strength, with the 
ardent hope of achieving that by barter and address which should for 
ever furnish forth such banquets. 

He had now no letter to deliver, nor any other introduction to offer 
than what his own wit could suggest. But his breakfast had in some 
sort inspired him, and he rang Mr. Croft's bell with a strength and 
courage made up of the remembrance of his swelling pocket-book and 
iced wine. 

The Englishman was silting with his daughter in a pleasant parlour 
which opened upon a garden filled with oleander and orange-trees. 
The young lady was practising the harp; and excepting the face of 
Lolte Steinmark, which he had not yet quite forgotten, Whitlaw 
thought he had never seen any thing so beautiful as the countenance 
that was raised upon him as he entered the door. 

Notwithstanding the proverbial shyness of Englishmen, they seldom 
show it in receiving a guest at home ; and our hero soon found him- 
self conversing with great fluency on the business that brought him there. 

" I expect that there's no mistake, Mr. Croft, in the fact that you're 
going to dispose of your interest in the Nixton estate ? " 

"No mistake at all, sir," replied Mr. Croft: " I came from England 
on purpose to look after the sale myself." 

"You could not have taken a more prudent step, sir. Depend 
upon it, there's no trusting to agents — you're sure to be cheated." 

"Indeed, sir! — that's giving no good character to your men of 
business. But it was no fear of that kind that brought me out; I 
chose to come myself for several reasons: first, I wanted to see your 
fine country; and next, I was told it would be likely to be serviceable 
to my daughter, who has not been quite well of late; and lastly, I had 
nothing else to do, having quite given up business of all kinds." 

" Why, sir, with a tolerable good estate in possession, a man didn't 
ought to think over much of business. But maybe you have a large 
family to provide for?" 

" I can hardly say that, sir : this young lady is my only child." 

Whitlaw looked again at Miss Croft, and this time decided that she 
was even handsomer than Lolte. 

" Well, Mr. Croft, I shall be happy, sir, if I can be the means of 
saving you any trouble ; and if you have to deal with me, you will at 
least be in the hands of an honest man. I have been thinking, sir, that 
I might like to become the purchaser myself of that bit as you've got 
to sell." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW 221 

*« It can hardly be called a bit, sir," replied Mr. Croft very quietly, 
"because the estate is as whole and complete as any property can 
be. But it is of little consequence what you call it, provided you are 
disposed to give the value. — May I take the liberty of asking your 
name, sir?" 

" My name is Whitlaw ; — Jonathan Jefterson Whitlaw. Though but 
a young man, I have some money at my disposal ; and if we can 
deal, I shall be well content to place it on landed security. Have you 
at all made up your mind as lo what you would lake for it, Mr. Croft?" 

"The question is a very plain one, Mr. Whillaw, and I see no 
reason why it should not receive a plain answer. I am told, sir, that 
the property atNixton, including the uncleared as well as the cleared, 
ought to fetch fifty thousand dollars." 

This was at least one-fourth more than Whitlaw had calculated, and 
he felt rather at a loss how to proceed with a negociation which he 
knew was greatly beyond his power to complete, even if assisted by 
every dollar his father could bring forward. But while one scheme 
seemed melting away, another was gradually and very pleasantly 
gelling possession of his fancy. Why might he not get Nixton with- 
out paying for it at all? Why might he not marry Mr. Croft's only 
daughler, and only child? If she would but think him as handsome 
as Mrs. Bobbin did, the thing would be settled at once; for it was im- 
possible to suppose lhat any Christian man would contradict the will of 
his only daughler, and she in delicate health too. These thoughts 
took but a moment in passing through his brain, and the next sufficed 
to suggest lo him lhat his best chance of pleasing both father and 
daughter, without setting them together by the ears, about him, was lo 
impress them both wilh sufficient idea of his wealth and consequence. 
With this object he again addressed Mr. Creft on the subject of the 
sale, though in trulh he had no more idea of achieving it than his good 
aunt Cli might have had of becoming the purchaser from the profits of 
her bacon and her dairy. 

"Well, Mr. Croft," said he very civilly, "lam not prepared to say, 
sir, that you are putting loo high a value on the properly; but the fact 
is, that it is considerable more than I looked to hear, and I'm half 
afraid it may pass my means. You see, sir, the fact is, that my father, 
Mr. Jonathan Whitlaw, of Mount Etna " 

"Mount Etna '."softly exclaimed the beautiful Selina. 

These were the first words she had spoken, and they immediately 
riveted the attention of the admiring Whitlaw. "Did you speak, miss?" 
said he very respectfully. 

" I beg your pardon, sir, for having broken in upon your conversation 
by my foolish exclamation, — it really was involuntary. But it seemed 
so strange to hear any person spoken of as being of Mount Etna." 



m LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

' " Such names are by no means out of the common way in this 
country, Selina," said her father rather reproachfully. " Pray, Mr. 
Whitlaw, go on." 

" Well, sir, as I was saying, my father is a gentleman in possession 
of a pretty considerable handsome estate, called Mount Etna, which 
seems to amuse this charming young lady so much. Now, sir, when 
a gentleman has got a landed estate, it stands to reason that he is not 
likely to have at the same time such a deal of the ready as would be 
called for to make good this purchase. Nevertheless, I expect that 
between us we could come pretty nigh upon it, — and maybe you 
wouldn't altogether dislike to have a portion of the purchase-money 
left on mortgage?" 

"lam sorry to say, sir," replied Mr. Croft, "that I could not agree 
to that. My object is to close my accounts with this country al- 
together. I have no reason whatever to complain of my tenant at 
Nixton ; but I have nevertheless found it very inconvenient to hold 
properly at such a distance." 

"I expect that's possible. And this charming young lady, what 
does she think of our fine country, Mr. Croft?" 

" She likes the warm climate exceedingly; but the country appears 
rather flat to those who are accustomed to the scenery of England." 

It is probable that Mr. Croft thought this as much of civility, lime, 
and conversation, as it was necessary to bestow on a stranger who had 
made a proposal which he did not mean to accept; for he not only 
ceased to speak, but began looking over and arranging various bills, 
receipts, and other papers which lay on the table before him. Young 
Whitlaw, however, if he understood the hint, felt no inclination to 
profit by it ; but turning from the father to the daughter, he set very 
seriously to work upon an undertaking every way important to him,— 
namely, the winning grace and favour in the eyes of the beautiful Miss 
Croft. 

" Tis an unaccountable fine climate, miss, this of ours, that's a fact ; 
and the country isn't that bad neither, I promise you, if you do but 
get upon the steam-boats and go far enough. Do you approbate the 
theatre, Miss Croft? I should be first-rate happy if I might be your 
beau, now and then, to show you the sights." 

Miss Croft was not a young lady of fashion, nor did she affect any 
fastidious refinement beyond her station, which was that of a very 
respectable merchant's only child, educated at one of the best schools 
in Liverpool, of which city her father was a native as well as herself , 
and beyond which neither her knowledge nor her wishes had carried 
her. She was not yet seventeen, and her time had hitherto been 
chiefly occupied by the study of those ornamental accomplishments to 
which her large fortune gave her a right lo aspire. Her reading, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW I2S 

beyond her mere class-books, was almost wholly confined to poetry, 
for which she had a fondness that approached almost to passion. But, 
like all very strong feelings, it was nourished in silence; and no one 
living had the least idea that the pale and gentle Selina secretly wor- 
shipped a species of glowing idol that made all earthly things seem tame 
beside it. 

Such being the peculiar tone of the young lady's mind, it is not very 
extraordinary that Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw failed lo produce the 
effect he desired. Indeed, there was something in his accent, manner, 
and appearance, though he was unquestionably a handsome man, 
which was very peculiarly disagreeable to her; and at this proposi- 
tion of becoming "her beau," and showing her " the sights," she felt 
something extremely like a shudder creep over her, and looking 
appealingly at her father, she too had recourse to some papers lying 
on the music-desk that stood before her, and answered not a word. 

It is possible that the lovely blush which dyed her cheeks as she 
turned her eyes from the young man to her desk, might have beguiled 
a less vain person than Whitlaw into thinking that her silence was not 
unaccompanied by emotion. Nor indeed was it, though of a kind as 
far removed as possible from any he wished to inspire; but to him it 
seemed a most " gracious silence," and with a smile which, if she had 
seen it would have been if possible more distasteful than his words, he 
turned from her after a long unbridled gaze, and said to her father as 
he rose to go, 

"I expect, Mr. Croft, that I shall have to see you, sir, on business 
quite of a, private nature before I leave the city." 

" Sir!" responded 31r. Croft in a tone of the most unaffected sur- 
prise. 

"I calculate, sir, that we must contrive to do business together 
somehow before we part, and I don't count upon your finding my pro- 
posals altogether unworthy attention. I've great expectations, 
Mr. Croft, from more quarters than one, but I'll say no more for the 
present. Good day to you, sir. Miss Selina Croft, ma'am, I have the 
honour of wishing you a very good day." 

The daughter bowed, the father rang the bell, and Mr. Whitlaw 
departed. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

We will not follow our presumptuous hero through the various 
blunders and vanities which in the course of a few days induced him 



224 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

to ask the hand of Miss Croft in marriage ; it will be sufficient to 
transcribe the letter by which the offer was made, in order to show the 
grounds on which he founded his hopes of success. The epistle ran 
thus : 

"TO MR. CROFT, MERCHANT OF LIVERPOOL. 

" Mr. Croft, 

"Sir, — I guess lhat by this, your dreadful beautiful daughter as well as your- 
self must be come to a pretty considerable good notion of what I am after. The 
estate at Nixton is all very well, and I wouldn't have any objection to buy it; and 
as to the price, 1 find there'd be no manner of difficulty about finding the needful. 
Mount Etna is a profitable bit loo. But after all, Mr. Croft, what is either estate 
in consequence compared to the real business in hand between us? 1 expect I 
must explain myself, because 'lis in rule so to do; though 1 don't doubt in the least 
that the beautiful eyes as have made such work with my heart have been clear- 
sighted enough to spy out what they have done. The short and the long of it is, 
then, that I'm in love with your daughter, Mr. Croft, and that 1 hereby make a 
proposal to marry her. One good reason why this match is likely enough to be 
agreeable to all parties is, that we are both of us only children; which mckes the 
business, as you will allow, a deal more plain-sailing. For, who could Mr.Whillaw 
of Mount Etna be after leaving all his property to? — and he has not lhat little to 
make it a flea-bite. And who could you, Mr. Croft, devise yours to — which I 
don't question is pretty considerable also — except to us two? So that's plain 
enough. As lo the article of residence, I'm a right-down good American, that's a 
fact : nevertheless, I would be no ways particular as to accompanying my wife to 
England for a spell ; and some of our young family might be left to cheer your old 
age, Mr. Croft, if you wished it, sir. In short, I lake it upon myself to assure you 
that in all things we shall be ready and willing to do what's most agreeable 
to you. 

" As to money down, I guess that the best way will be not lo meddle or make 

with the Nixton estate at all, but just let that come straight at once to my wife, 

which I shall consider like one and the same as ready cash ; and I understand that 

you couldn't be well off doing lhat, seeing that it comes by the young lady's mother, 

and ought therefore, as matter of course and justice, lo go to her child. There is 

but one other point, I expect, lhat need be mentioned at present; but that's one on 

which I don't think 1 should be over easy to change, and therefore it ought by 

rights to be done settled at first starling. Whenever my wife and I goes over to 

the old country, 1 never will suffer nor permit any of my niggers to go across with 

us, for 1 know from good authority what comes of it : they gets free as soon as they 

touches that queer old place, and devil a bit should I ever get 'em back again to 

Louisiana. Not doubting lhat all I propose will be counted reasonable and 

handsome, 

" 1 remain, honoured sir, 

" Your friend and son (as would be) 

" Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw. 

" P.S. As I don't see any reason for wishing for delay, 1 shall be ready to perform 

my part of the happy ceremony at the shortest notice. 

« To Mr. John Croft." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 223 

When this letter was delivered, the father and daughter were, as 
was very usual with them, sitting together. Mr. Croft read it through 
without uttering a word, and having finished it, he sighed deeply and 
began again at " Mr. Croft, — Sir :" but before he had finished the first 
page, he stopped short, and looking at his daughter with great gentle- 
ness, and as if he feared to give her pain, he said, 

" Selina? why have you not told me this? — why have you not told 
me that Mr. Whitlaw was your lover?" 

11 Who, father!" replied the poor girl almost in a swoon, — <c who 
do you say is my lover?" 

" That young man called Whitlaw, Selina. Here is a letter from 
him — a very strange letter certainly, in every way; but it is evident 
he considers himself as your accepted lover." 

" He! — Oh, father! can you say that and bear me in your sight? 
He my accepted lover! The only human being — God forgive me ! — 
that I was ever sinful enough to hate." 

"My dearest child !" exclaimed her father in a voice that testified the 
most unequivocal satisfaction, "forgive me for having for a single 
instant believed it possible. But see how he writes, Selina! The 
presumptuous fool! — What could I think, my dear girl, from such a 
letter as this?" 

Selina received the letter and read it. Her father watched her coun- 
tenance as she proceeded, and was surprised at the violent agitation it 
betrayed. From the moment he discovered that the tone of confident 
success assumed in this curious epistle was as unwarranted as it was 
displeasing, he felt greatly inclined to indulge in the ridicule it so 
naturally excited ; but the emotion of his daughter forbad this, and he 
felt almost ashamed of having been disposed to treat lightly what 
evidently occasioned her much real suffering. 

"Give me the letter, Selina, — it is really beneath your notice. 
Pray compose yourself and think no more of this presumptuous 
youth : never surely was any man so besotted by his vanity as this 
one !" 

" I am very wrong, I believe, to be so deeply wounded by it. Is 
it pride, father, that makes my heart swell as if it would choke me 
when I think of this man's fancying I could marry him ?" 

" Perhaps it may be, my love; and yet I think there are better 
feelings too that may have a part in it. This letter is offensive to 
your delicacy, Selina, as well as to your pride. But come, come, do 
not look so very like a duchess about it. I will give him his answer, 
and you shall hear no more of him." 

" Pray do not spare him, sir," said the young lady, rising to leave 
the room. " I particularly request that you will let him understand 
that we had neither of us any ' notion at all of what he was after/ 

15 



226 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

These, I think, are his own elegant words, and he will probably un- 
derstand them better than any other you could use." 

Miss Croft retired to her own little dressing-room, where, as usual, 
though she was there only as a sojourner in the land, her lofty and 
romantic spirit had surrounded itself with the only food it loved to 
feed upon. A volume of Spenser was in her hand, and she was com- 
pletely absorbed by the noble thoughts she found there, when her 
English maid entered and informed her that a poor old negro-woman 
desired to speak to her. 

It was with the deep sigh with which one resigns an occupation that 
is very dear, for one that is not so, that the young enthusiast laid aside 
the cherished volume, and meekly said, " Let her come in." 

Selina's was a kind and generous heart ; and feeling no doubt that 
the poor old negro-woman described by her maid came to ask charity, 
she could not hesitate to receive her. But had she been engaged in an 
occupation less delightful than that of reading Spenser, this interrup- 
tion would still have been distasteful to her. The oppressed and suf- 
fering condition of the coloured people at New Orleans was a source of 
constant annoyance to her comfort ; yet she had a fanciful theory of 
her own respecting them, which, though it never could have led her 
generous and gentle temper to treat them harshly, made all intercourse 
with them in some degree painful and degrading. She firmly believed 
that this marked and hitherto most unhappy race were the descendants 
of Cain, and her feelings towards them were the result of both supersti- 
tious abhorrence and wounded compassion. 

It was not, therefore, without- a sort of mental struggle that she 
did, as we have seen, desire the old negro-woman to " come in." 

It was the uncouth and decrepit figure of Juno that met her eyes as 
she raised them on her maid's re-entering with the announcement — 
" Here is the old woman, ma'am." 

Selina started. Though less wild and grotesque in appearance than 
when she sought to excite respect by the assumption of supernatural 
power, the aspect of Juno was still sufficiently singular to produce 
surprise at least, if not disgust and terror. Perhaps in the feelings of 
Selina there was a mixture of all three. 

She recovered herself, however, and said very kindly, " Can I do 
anything to serve you, my good woman?" 

" Music !" exclaimed Juno, fixing her eyes with impassioned ear- 
nestness on her face, — ''most sweet music!" 

" What can she mean, Susan ?" said the young lady, turning to her 
maid, who, with a look half frightened, half laughing, stood gazing on 
the odd-looking stranger : ' 'do you suppose she wants me to play to her ?" 

"Oh dear, no, ma'am; she never could think of such a thing. 
What do you want, old woman?" 



JONATHAxX JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 227 

" I want not you, young woman," replied Juno wilh somewhat o( 
her usual authority of tone; "I want only to see and hear that 
angel." 

Juno as she spoke advanced a few steps towards the object of her 
admiration, and gazing fixedly and wistfully in her face, large heavy 
tears fell drop by drop unconsciously from her eyes, and she seemed 
wholly to forget where she was, and the surprise she was likely to ex- 
cite. 

Agitated and displeased, Selina sought to shrink from her glance, 
and moving to a greater distance, said, " I think you must mistake me 
for some one else, good woman : pray do not stare at me so. Give 
her this, Susan, and take her down stairs : if she wishes for anything 
to eat, let her have it." 

The abigail took some money from the hand of her mistress, and 
offered it to the old woman. 

" You are white, and no slave, young woman, — I know that well, 
and respect you accordingly ; but l would not have you here at this 
moment, — it is a very awful one. Keep the money, — I have no need 
of it ; you work for hire, and let that pay you for the trouble of leaving 
the room for a few minutes." 

The girl looked half frightened, and seemed about to obey her, 
when Selina cried out eagerly, " Do not go, Susan — I will not have 
you leave me." 

" Selina !" exclaimed Juno in a tone of tender reproach ; Selina ! 
— child of Selina, as she was of my Selina, my own, my lovely one ! 
— do you fear me ? Let that woman go, Selina — it were better for 
us both — no, no, it were better for you, Selina, that she should not 
hear what I must now disclose : will you send her from us?" 

"Surely she is mad, Susan," cried the poor girl, greatly terrified ; 
"you must not — indeed you must not leave me." 

The whole expression of Juno's countenance changed as she listened 
to these words, and instead of tenderness, anger and despair seemed 
almost to convulse her features. 

"No, girl, I am not mad, but I am black, and I am still a slave, 
— ay, still a slave, as when I gave birth to her who gave birth to your 
mother. You tremble, Selina — you turn deadly pale! — Alas! poor 
child ! it was but cruel fondness to tell thee this ; yet it is true, Selina : 
but this menial here should not have heard it. Tell her, my child, — 
my poor, pale, trembling child, — that she must not publish to the 
world, not to the New Orleans world, that thou hast a living parent in 
a poor old slave. Selina, dearest! — will you not sdeak to me? — you 
are my child, the offspring of my blood, as surely as of the white 
man's who had my early woman's love — my first, my last, my only 
love. Selina ! will you not speak to your old parent?" 

13 * 



SIS LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

" Oh, dreadful 1 dreadful !" shrieked the terrified Selina. "Where 
is my father ? — Father ! father ! come to me !" 

Susan, who had listened with equal attention and astonishment to 
this strange disclosure, and who found there was no more news to be 
learned by remaining in the room, thought that the best thing she 
could do in order to satisfy her mistress's doubts and her own, would 
be to gratify the young lady by summoning her father. She accor- 
dingly almost threw herself down the staircase which led to the room 
he occupied, and bursting open the door, she exclaimed, " For God's 
sake, sir, come this instant to my young lady, or you will hardly find 
her alive!" 

Mr. CrOft, who had just despatched his letter to Whitlaw, which a 
feeling of anger at the painful emotion he had caused his daughter had 
led him to write with some severity, now fancied that the illness her 
maid announced proceed from the same source, and that she was 
fretting at the insult she had received. 

" Poor girl ! — poor dear girl ! — it is too bad, a great deal too bad ; 

but, hang the fellow! I think it will be long enough before he 

ventures upon a similar experiment." It was thus Mr. Croft muttered 
forth his resentment as he hastily followed Susan to his daughter's 
apartment. Great indeed was his astonishment at seeing her lying 
back in her chair almost insensible, while old Juno with mixed anger 
and alarm stood at a short distance from her, alternately uttering words 
of tenderest affection, and expressions of bitter reproach. 

" Good God ! what is the matter, my child ! Who is this woman ? 
Why are you looking so pale and so terrified ?" 

The voice of her father seemed to restore her faculties ; she started 
up, and throwing herself into his arms, exclaimed, " Oh, father ! 
father 1 tell me it is false ! — tell me, swear to me, that I am not of the 
accursed race of Gain !" 

" My dear Selina, what can have happened to put you into this 
dreadful agitation ? Who is this old woman ? and what has she been 
saying to you?" 

" The old woman will tell you all you wish to know, if you are the 
father of Selina!" said Juno. " But let not that'young woman, whose 
eyes look more curious than kind — let her not remain to hear it. She 
has already heard enough to puzzle her ; and I have no wish that the 
matter should be made clearer to her understanding." 

"Go, Susan," said Mr. Croft, more than ever bewildered; and 
replacing his daughter on her chair, he sat down beside her, prepared 
to hear some fortune-telling tale of dismal augury, and exceedingly 
well disposed to throw the speaker of it out of the window when it was 

done. 
Susan retreated, and shut the door behind her ; but Juno knew little 



JOxNATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 22-> 

of the nature of white waiting-maids, when she imagined that by 
sending her from the room because there was something going forward 
which she was not to know, she would thereby be kept ignorant of it. 
The door had a keyhole, and to that keyhole was applied Susan's 
ear. 

No sooner was she out of sight than Juno again spoke. 

" It is woe and grief to me to have shaken the spirit of that lovely 
child, but nature cried aloud within me. She is mine — my child in 
the third descent ; could I look at, and not claim her? But that 
claim seems to have broken her heart." 

"What on earth do you mean, woman?" said Mr. Croft sternly ; 
"what raving nonsense is this ? Selina, my love, look up; you 
surely cannot for a moment believe this wild and most improbable 
story!" 

The unfortunate Selina however did believe it, though struggling 
hard to doubt it. 

"Will you be pleased, sir," said Juno, " to answer me one or two 
questions? My questions may enlighten you more than your answers 
can enlighten me." 

" What is it you would ask, woman ?" said Mr. Groft : " be quick, 
and let us have an end to this mummery." 

" Was not your wife's maiden name Woodthorpe ? — Selina Wood- 
thorpe?" 

"Well! and what then?" 

' ' Did you ever hear her mother's maiden name ! Was it not Seldon 
—Selina too,— Selina Seldon?" 

" Yes, I know that was her name. I have several books belonging 
to her ; and her name was written in them all." 

" That Selina Seldon, the mother of your wife, was my child. She 
was a yellow woman, and, as they say, a very lovely one. You look 
strangely at me ; but my tale is a true one, and those by whose means 
I have ever been enabled to hear tidings of the only race on earth with 
whom I claim kindred— they can tell you so, and will, if you'll be 
pleased to ask them." 

The manner of Juno was now so perfectly calm and rational, that 
there was no longer any possibility of believing her insane ; but Mr. 
Croft, as he looked in the face of his daughter, trembled at the conse- 
quences this strange disclosure was likely to make upon her. What- 
ever he had thought of the old woman at first, he was now greatly 
persuaded that the story was a true one ; he wel remembered the 
beautiful but dark olive of his wife's complexion, her raven hair, and 
the peculiar clearness of her large black eyes ; but to him the convic- 
tion brought nothing terrible. His wife had been a very beautiful, 
accomplished, and estimable woman ; had brought him a handsome 



230 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

fortune, and died regretted by a large circle of friends. Of what nation^ 
country, or colour her mother or her mother's mother might have 
been, was to him a matter of great indifference ; though assuredly, had 
he known her origin, he would not have brought his daughter to New 
Orleans. All he could now do, however, was to calm the evident 
agony of poor Selina's mind by endeavouring to throw doubt upon the 
statement of the old woman, which in fact was as yet quite unproved. 

" Selina !" said he, " this story is far too wild and fanciful to be 
received as true upon any single testimony whatever. I will inquire 
into it. Should it prove as idle as it is likely to do, I trust you will 
dismiss it instantly and entirely from your thoughts. If, on the 
contrary, it should be borne out by testimony, our course is very 
simple : I will immediately purchase the freedom of this poor slave, 
leave her with ample means to pass her remaining days in comfort, 
and then return to our own country, where this very romantic history 
will never be known or believed. Will not this satisfy you, my dear 
child?" 

■ ' Father ! you do not yet believe it?'' 

" No, no, Selina! It is much too improbable." 

" Thank God! But if it be false, father, it is because that poor 
wretch is mad. She believes the tale herself, I am sure of it." 

Poor child !" said Juno sadly ; " does it cut so deeply ? I would I 
had never told it! Farewell, Selina! Your name has been poor Juno's 
talisman for many a year ; it served to conjure off much shame and 
sorrow from her. But she shall never talk of it again — not even to the 
woods. Farewell!" 

She waited not for any answer, but hastily retreated from the 
room. As she passed through the door, she perceived a female figure 
gliding rapidly down the stairs before it, and she thought it was that 
of the white waiting-maid whose presence had so much annoyed 
her. But Juno's heart was too heavy at this moment to pay much 
attention to trifles, and she thought no more of it. All the bright 
but uncertain hopes with which she had entered the house were 
now crushed and dead ; but perhaps the pang that rankled most pain- 
fully was the suspicion expressed by the father that she was an im- 
postor. Her head was aching and giddy with the numberless projects 
that suggested themselves for proving with immediate and most im- 
posing evidence the truth of her assertions, but the remembrance of 
Selina's pale and wretched face chased them all. She determined 
therefore to see Mr. Croft alone on the morrow, for the purpose of 
showing him one or two memorials which she thought must bring con- 
viction to his mind; and then." thought poor Juno,—-" then I will 
once more turn my back upon New Orleans— creep into Ihe hut these 
hands have built, and die!" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 2W1 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

Mr. Croft's letter of dismissal to Whitlaw was not penned without 
some slight touch of the contempt and indignation his impudent assump- 
tion of success deserved ; but it produced a degree of irritation on the 
mind of the young man more proportioned to his preposterous estimate 
of his own merits than to the degree of severity with which it was 
written. 

The nation of Mr. Croft came in for no inconsiderable portion of the 
maledictions which followed the perusal of it. In fact, it was less 
wounding to his vanity to believe that he was dismissed because a d — d 
infernal proud Englishman would not suffer his daughter to marry 
an American, than that his personal qualities were not such as to make 
him acceptable to the young lady herself. 

A very malignant feeling of jealousy, however, mixed with his dis- 
appointment. Perhaps, he really believed that no young girl, not 
prepossessed in favour of another, could have resisted him ; and as if 
the Spanish feelings which had once been the soul of New Orleans still 
haunted its precincts and now visited him, visions of daggers, knives 
and stilettos seemed to float before his eyes and arrange themselves in 
his brain. Before he could indulge himself, however, with even fan- 
cying how they might avenge him, it was necessary to ascertain who 
the individual might be for whose especial service he was willing to 
employ them. There was some very savage ingredient, as it should 
seem, in the passion of love whenever it found its way into the bosom 
of Whitlaw. Though long celebrated for his licentious amours, Lotte 
Steinmark was decidedly the first female whose beauty had really 
touched the heart of my hero ; and to her brothers, who had seemed 
to stand round and guard her from him, he had vowed, and still held 
himself ready to perform the vow whenever occasion might offer, a 
vengeance not the less deep because delayed. 

Selina Croft, if she had not effaced this first impression, had decid- 
edly made a new one beside it ; but in her case also, the tender feel- 
ing was soon merged and lost in sentiments of mortification and haired. 

During the few days which intervened between Whitlaw's first visit 
to Mr. Croft and the delivery of the letter which brought his hopes to 
so abrupt a conclusion, he had more than once called, and been re- 
fused admittance. But, quite persuaded that this was the consequence 
of a general, and not particular exclusion, he conceived the idea that 



232 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

the gallant and well-tried project of bribing the lady's maid with a little 
love and a little money might avail him. 

The scheme was quite successful. Susan had left her own country 
chiefly in the hope of finding profit and adventure ; and when, there- 
fore, she saw herself dodged in one of the streets of New Orleans by a 
very tall and handsome gentleman (Whitlaw was always well dressed), 
she saw no harm in looking over her shoulder to see what he could 
possibly mean, or at length in listening to him while he declared that 
if heT mistress were as handsome as herself, he would contrive to marry 
her, if her fortune were one half less ; but that, as it was, she should 
be rewarded by his purse, as well as his tenderest admiration, if she 
would assist in bringing him within reach of Miss Croft. 

Between such persons as Mr. Whitlaw and Susan, these sort of com- 
pacts do not take long in arranging; and it was soon agreed, that when 
he rang, which he was to do with peculiar gentleness, she should pass 
near the door by accident, open it, and admit him : 

This had been done repeatedly ; and it was the angry blush which 
melted on Selina's cheek, and a half smile that showed itself in the 
good-humoured dimples of her father upon these occcasions, which, 
being read amiss, had led to the eclaircissement. It was not one in- 
terview, however, which had sufficed to arrange these visits, or la 
reward Susan for her successful management of them. At a certain 
hour in each day, the young woman had repaired to a place indicated ; 
and Whitlaw, who was now as anxious to examine her respecting 
others as he had been to interest her for himself, again kept the appoint- 
ment, and again had the satisfaction of finding his agent faithful to it. 

He immediately perceived that the girl had something new and im- 
portant to communicate, and after the prologue of a few gentle words 
on both sides, they prepared mutually to open their hearts, and relieve 
themselves of the load of intelligence that oppressed them. 

" I have got news for you, now, Mr. Whitlaw," said Susan ; " but 
I misdoubt if you will like it much — at least if you hold fast to your 
intention of marrying my young lady. What blood do you think she's 
come of, Mr. Whitlaw?^ — and she so pale and delicate too !" 

" What blood?" repeated Whitlaw. " Why, d— d English blood, 
I suppose. What d'ye mean, my dear?" 

" I mean almost more than you will believe, I think; and yet, it is 
as true as that you're tall and I'm short. I mean, Mr. Whitlaw, that 
Miss Croft's mother came of a nigger." 

" Not possible!" 

•* 'Tis true though, as sure as you stand there. I saw the old negress 
myself, as came to claim the relationship ; and an ugly old monster 
she is as ever my eyes looked upon. Do you think, Mr. Whitlaw, that 
there will be any danger of the likeness coming upon the children over 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON VVH1TLAW. 113 

again? I have heard tell that it does sometimes happen with the 
goat, and with red hair, and fits, and a great many things; but I'm 
sure I should be sorry to see a lawful-born child of yours look like a 
nigger ; — that would be a pity !" 

" Black blood!" muttered Whitlaw, who seemed hardly conscious 
that he spoke. 

" Yes, sir, black blood ! God knows, there is no good in mincing 
the matter, for the cretur is as black as your boot." 

" Black blood, Susan? Is it true? are you very, very sure there 
is no mistake? You darling, beautiful creature! I will doat upon 
you for ever for this. But, Susan, I must see her once more — only 
once ; you need not be jealous, my dear, but I must positively see her 
once again, and without her father too. How can you manage this?" 

" Easy enough, Mr. Whitlaw, if you can come to-morrow after- 
noon. My master has a party of three or four gentlemen to dine with 
him. Miss Croft never dines at table on these occasions, but is always 
dressed and ready to receive them in the drawing-room afterwards. 
Now, your time will be to come just before sunset, and then you'll be 
sure of her." 

•' Good! To-morrow, before sun-down, I'll be there, Susan, if I 
never make another visit on earth. But remember, you are at hand, 
dear girl ! Once you failed me — last Monday, you know, and I was 
sent off. If you fail me to-morrow, Susan, I will never see you 
more." € 

"Dofrtbe afraid, Mr. Whitlaw. I'll come down straight from 
dressing her, and bide at the front door looking about me till you come ; 
so there'll be no need of knocking or ringing at all." 

' ' Excellent ! And now good-b'ye, dear Susan ! I must reserve all 
I had to say to you till next time — I have a hundred things to think of. 
Good-b'ye." 

And so they parted ; — Susan to return with eye of lynx to spy into 
the sick heart of her young mistress; and Whitlaw, to enjoy the pros- 
pect of a revenge more admirably suited to his wishes, than any his 
own ingenious faculties could have conceived. 

For many hours he meditated upon it with a fulness of delight which 
left no room for thoughts of mere human wisdom and policy ; but at 
length it occurred to him, that if he managed well, he might first gra- 
tify his longing to revenge the affront he had received, and then turn the 
discovery to handsome profit. So delightful were these speculations, 
that not even the gaming-table had stimulant sufficient to occupy him 
during this interval, and he passed the moments in anxious but not 
unhappy idleness till the hour of appointment arrived. 

True to her promise, Susan stood gaily dressed at the door; and as 
she made way for Whijlaw to pass, she whispered, " There she is all 



2U LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

alone, and dismal enough, I promise you, since she found out her black 
nigger grandmother. " 

Whitlaw bounded up the stairs like the squirrel of his native woods : 
he feared lest the father of the young creature whose feelings he was 
going to outrage might start forth and stop him. 

Without giving the slightest signal of his approach, Whitlaw opened 
the door and entered. 

Selina was sitting near a table on which lay an open volume ; but 
her head rested upon a fair hand which entirely covered her eyes, and 
it was evident that she was not reading. The opening door roused 
her : she looked up and saw Whitlaw. 

As usual, her heightened colour proclaimed some species of emotion ; 
but it was not now, as formerly, mistaken for the blush of love, albeit 
that it was "celestial, rosy red." She rose from her seat, and her 
eyes said as plainly as eyes could speak, 

" How dare you enter here?" 

11 Don't disturb yourself, Miss Selina," said Whitlaw, with a degree 
of effrontery that very literally struck her dumb. " Sit still," he 
continued : " a pretty girl, if she's as yellow as a guinea, may always 
sit, provided there's nobody by but the man that's her lover." 

He approached very near her as he spoke, and a feeling of deep 
disgust made her spring aside as if some noxious reptile was coming 
upon her. 

"Well, now, if I don't believe that you're afraid of me ! Why, 
that's instinct, my pretty girl. You know, I expect, that black blood 
is black blood, let it be filtered down ever so; and maybe you think 
I'm come to treat you as coloured folks is always treated in this country 
when they don't know how to behave themselves? A pretty game 
you've been after playing, you and your father, haven't you? But 
near as I was lo be taken in, I don't bear malice ; and besides, my dear, 
if you had done caught me, our marriage, you know, would have 
been just no marriage at all ; for the law says, that if a white man de- 
means himself to marry one of a coloured race, it's just all one as if 
they wasn't married at all. But I'm a faithful lover, my pretty miss, 
and to let you down gentle like, I'm willing, if you behaves yourself, 
to make you my favourite mistress after all." 

Choking with mingled sensations of shame and indignation, the un- 
happy Selina could only articulate, " Go! — go! — go!" 

"Go? When you've been a little longer in this country, you'll 
know your place better, my dear. I don't mean to go, little lady, till 
I've proved that a friend in need is a friend indeed. Instead of going, 
I will just place myself here, Miss Selina; and you may sit down too, 
if you will — I shan't object." 

A dreadful sensation of sickness that made her fear she was fainting 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 235 

obliged her to obey him, for in truth it rendered her toially incapable 
of escape. 

" My !" exclaimed her tormenler, " you do look pale enough now 
for one of negro breed, that's a fact. I expect you'll be all the better 
for a glass of water, my dear." 

So saying, he rose and rang the bell. A female slave answered it. 

" Bring a glass of water here, blacky," said Whitlaw, pointing to 
Selina to show her for whom it was required. The girl left the room, 
and returning instantly, poured out a glass of water with anxious 
haste, and presented it to her almost fainting mistress. Selina took 
it eagerly, and used the strength it gave her in rising to leave the room. 

" No, no, my girl, you must not go yet," said the wretch, putting 
himself in a truly national attitude, balancing himself on one chair and 
throwing a leg over the back of another, while the trembling and 
wholly subdued Selina stood before him. " I've got to tell you that 
for a handsome consideration— a neat bit out of the Nixton estate, 

perhaps Go out of the room, smut !" he cried, stopping short in 

his proposals, and addressing the negress, who stared at him with 
astonishment and dislike, but, obedient to the white man's word, she 
immediately left the room. " There now," he continued, " see if I 
arn't honourable ! — Maybe she's yt>ur cousin, though. — But what I 
say must be between ourselves, my dear, or it won't be worth hear- 
ing. What I was going to propose was this, that your father should 
make over to me a part, you see, of the Nixton estate, upon condi- 
tion, signed and sealed, if you will, that I keep the secret of your 
being come of negro blood; and then, maybe, I'll be so civil as to be 
still willing to buy the remainder ; 'cause you see you couldn't inherit 
it in this country, my dear : — not to mention that you'd be turned out 
neck and heels of every room where you put your foot, unless 'tis to 
wait upon us while, or the like of that. But if you'll consent to this 
proposal, I'll undertake to get you smuggled out of the country before 
it gets wind at all, — that is, provided you wouldn't like better to stay 
in it as my favourite miss." 

A deep groan was the only answer he received, and at the same mo- 
ment Selina fell prostrate on the ground. 

Mr. Whitlaw thought it was now time to escape, and he did so, after 
turning on every fiendish glance of triumph upon the unconscious girl; 
determined however, to repeat his kind proposal to her father in 
writing, which, whether it were received as an insult or a bargain, 
would be almost equally satisfactory to him. 

When Selina recovered her senses, she found herself on her bed. 
with her room darkened and all the appareil of invalidism about her 
She felt little or no weakness of body, however, and her first impulse 



MO LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

led her to rise, in order to seek her father ; but she recollected that he 
was not alone, and quickly replacing her head on the pillow, and 
bidding her maid return to tell her when his guests were departed, 
she determined to pass the interval in meditating on her own strange 
and greatly altered situation. 

Had the disclosure which so overwhelmed her been made in any 
other country, its effect upon her mind would have been totally differ- 
ent. In England it is probable that such an incredible statement would 
have been treated only as a jest. Very lovely portraits of the two fe- 
males through whom the detested stain had reached her were among 
the boasted treasures of her inheritance, and the early death of both 
had probably contributed to the utter oblivion of their female ancestor. 
Mr. Croft, in marrying the only daughter and heiress of a respectable 
London merchant, had not deemed it necessary to inquire into the 
lineage of her mother, who survived her birth but a few hours ; espe- 
cially as it was well known that the property he received with her was 
from this mother's fortune, which had luckily been settled on her child 
at her marriage, the father afterwards becoming bankrupt. 

Selina's education, though sedulously attended to on some points, 
had given her very little general information ; and the impressions she 
received on most subjects were more influenced by her own high- 
wrought imagination, than by any previous knowledge acquired from 
good authority. The appearance and condition of the slave population 
as they met her at New Orleans was equally unexpected and revolting : 
she knew little or nothing on the subject of their history or their wrongs, 
and her deeply-religious spirit was shocked to feel a sort of impious 
misdoubting of the justice of Heaven, as their degraded and terrible 
position was developed before her. From this most painful and guilty 
thought she was relieved by the persuasion which soon took possession 
of her mind, that this dreadful spectacle was the result of the immu- 
table command of God. " Well might wretched Cain say," exclaimed 
she, as she turned with loathing from the objects which perpetually 
met her eyes, — " well might he say prophetically for his whole race, 
• My punishment is greater than I can bear !' " 

With opinions and feelings such as these, the state of her mind at 
suddenly finding herself branded as one still stained by the accursed 
" mark" may in some degree be conceived. In common with most 
young people of a fanciful temperament and poetical turn of thought, 
she conceived herself somewhat apart from and above the common 
herd. Neither her fortune nor her beauty created any such feeling, 
but she had believed herself favoured by Heaven with a soul of higher 
tone than was usually accorded to mortals. Poor girl !— the descent 
from these visions to the hateful reality was too violent. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WIIITLAW. 237 

For two long hours she lay ruminating on her past and present lot 
before her father came to her. 

With all his earnest wishes to heal the wound her mind had received, 
he was unable to utter a word that could give her consolation. Mr. Croft 
was a true-hearted and truth-speaking Englishman. In such a cause 
he might perhaps have wished to deceive ; but he knew not how to do 
it. All the inquiries he had made by means of the clue furnished him 
by Juno, who had delivered many letters and memoranda into his 
hands, had tended to convince him that her statement was true, and 
he now came to announce to his daughter the only news he thought 
likely to console her ; namely, that he had determined upon sailing 
for Europe by the first vessel that left the port with that destination. 

Selina had risen from her bed before his entrance, her maid having 
announced the departure of his guests ; and she met him with such an 
appearance of restored composure, that half his uneasiness vanished, 
and he spoke cheerfully of their speedy departure. 

His daughter listened to him with a quiet smile, but seemed to 

evade the subject, as if not yet sufficiently restored to enter upon it. 

"To-morrow, dear father," said she, — "to-morrow settle all 

about it. I will come down and take a biscuit and a glass of wine 

with you, and then I will go to rest." 

Perfectly satisfied by the composure of her manner, and anxious, 
late as it was for business, to go out immediately in the hope of find- 
ing one or two persons whom it was necessary he should see before his 
departure, he led her to the parlour which they usually occupied in 
the morning, and having ordered and partaken with her the refresh- 
ment she desired, prepared to leave her, saying, "Good night, dear 
love ! it is not yet loo late for me to do several things which will save 
time to-morrow." 

Selina rose and approached him. " Give me your blessing and a 
kiss, dear father !" she said, resting her head upon his bosom. 

"God bless thee, my sweet child!" he replied, pressing her fair 
forehead with his lips, — " God bless thee, dearest!" 

"She withdrew gently from his embrace, and sat down without 
speaking. He looked at her fondly for a moment, repeated his " God 
bless you, dearest !" and withdrew. 

The room she was in opened upon the garden. She drew back 
the curtain, and seeing the bright moonlight reflected by a thousand 
beautiful blossoms, she walked out into the midst of them. Nothing 
could be more delicious than the feel and the fragrance of the air at 
that hour. The day had been oppressively warm, but now a breeze 
played among the myrtles, the oranges, and the tuberoses, which, to a 
tamer fancy than Selina's, might have recalled the gales of Eden. She 
removed the comb and ribbon which confined her hair, and giving her 



238 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

long coal-black tresses to the wind, seemed to enjoy the freedom with 
which they fanned her cheek. She stood thus for many minutes in- 
haling the rich odour of the shrubs with a feeling that seemed to ap- 
proach to ecstasy. 

At length the spell was broken, and she moved on ; but her step and 
action were hurried and unquiet. She went from tree to tree pluck- 
ing the flowers, till she had collected almost more than she could 
carry; and then retreating hastily to the house, she regained her 
chamber, dismissed her maid, who was in attendance there, and care- 
fully securing her door, remained alone. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

It will be necessary that I should again lose sight of my hero for a 
short time, that the reader may be enabled to understand the posi- 
tion of those whom accident had made of importance to his future 
destiny. 

After quitting the mansion of Frederick Steinmark, Juno lost no 
time in letting Colonel Dart understand that it was necessary he should 
forthwith, for his own especial well-being and safety, despatch a civil 
epistle to the German proprietor of Reichland, assuring him that if he 
stood in need of an excellent gardener, the best thing he could do would 
be to purchase a slave known by the name of Caesar Bush from the fac- 
tory of Mr. Oglevie, near New Orleans. 

Colonel Dart had done so many things of greater importance at the 
bidding of Juno, that it was not very likely she should find much 
trouble in obtaining his compliance with this new behest ; nor, in fact 
did she, though the little gentleman did look rather more puzzled than 
usual at the request. 

11 But what the devil is it to me, Juno, who that German idiot that 
works his grounds with white men has for a gardener? Why for 
shouldn't he go on as he began, without owning a slave? He'll be 
sure to get ruined at last, and it isn't I that have any right to stop him." 

" I well know that it is not for the master of all," replied Juno, " to 
trouble himself with the concerns of any such mean, ignorant, foreign 
whites as the people at Reichland : but neither have the people at 
Reichland, in good truth, anything to do with this matter, excepting as 
we have the wit to make them act and do for the furtherance of the 
affairs of others. It is needful for the safety of Paradise Plantation, 
and for the more precious safety still of him who is the master of it, that 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WI1ITLAW. SttO 

this young slave Caesar, who will act faithfully by my orders, should be 
stationed near us. This is all ; and the man called Frederick Steinmark 
is only to be a tool in our hands." 

Juno pronounced this harangue in an accent of such assured autho- 
rity, that the colonel never for an instant conceived the possibility of 
refusing to do what she desired ; and the letter was accordingly written 
in very precise conformity to her instructions, and forthwith delivered 
into her hands. 

Furnished with this document, she sought and found Edward Bligh, 
who had suffered much in mind since the dangerous hours passed in 
Karl Steinmark's strawberry-field. Though the gossip so confidently 
repeated at Mount Etna respecting the marriage of Lotte with the 
young baron was certainly premature, there was already enough of 
love between them to "show the eyes and grieve the heart" of poor 
Edward, and to convince him with dreadful torturing certainty that 
woman's love, that drop of redeeming sweetness that seems thrown 
by Providence into the bitter cup of human life to render it bearable 
to those doomed to quaff it, would never be distilled into his. 

Two subsequent visits, made with trembling hope and sickening 
fear, had fully convinced him of this ; but with the gentle resignation 
and high courage of his noble nature, he saw in it only a new proof 
that it was Heaven's will he should not bind his affections to any- 
thing on earth, but hold himself prepared to sacrifice a life, perhaps 
mercifully made of little value, whenever the duty to which he had de- 
voted himself should demand his doing so. 

Poor Edward ! — if the enthusiasm which a worldly scoffer would 
have called his hobby-horse did indeed lead him astray to a degree 
that indicated a mind diseased, it was a malady which, like the re- 
dundant blossom often seen to burst the calix that should retain it, 
manifested a richness and perfection only too powerful for nature to 
sustain. 

When Juno reached his forest home, she found him sitting with his 
Bible open on his little table ; but his eye at that moment was not perus- 
ing the page spread out before him, but rested as it were on vacancy, 
with that fixed gaze in which the soul seems to look out farther than 
the bodily organ can follow it. 

Old Juno was no favourite with Edward ; and had not the vehe- 
ment feelings recently excited, and so quickly checked, left him in a 
state of such subdued and melancholy gentleness as made him feel it 
only a fulfilment of his destiny to bear and forbear with all persons,, 
and in all circumstances to which he might be exposed, it is probable 
that the errand she came to send him on, might not have been so 
meekly accepted as it was. 

" T see not well how this letller can be likely to benefit Caesar, my 



240 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

good woman; but I will deliver it to Mr. Steinmark, as you are so 
earnest with me to do so." 

" The blessing of Heaven need not be invoked by such as I am, on 
such as you are," replied Juno, " or I would kneel down now to ask 
for it ; but, Master Edward, though you have no faith in Juno, you 
will do, even at her bidding, what will make poor Caesar the safe pro- 
perty of this good and righteous foreigner, instead of leaving him in 
hourly risk of again becoming the prey of a Creole slave-driver. Say ! 
— will you not?" 

" I will indeed, Juno, if I have the power to do it. But it is con- 
trary to the principles of Frederick Steinmark to purchase a slave — 
why therefore should you suppose that he would do it now ?" 

"The principles of Frederick Steinmark," answered Juno, " will 
never restrain him from doing a good action, however much the man- 
ner of it may be foreign to the habits of his life. By redeeming this 
poor runaway from the peril that hangs over him, the good Frederick 
Steinmark will not become the thing he abominates — a dealer in human 
flesh, an impious trampler on the image of God — in one single unholy 
word, a slave-holder : were he to purchase the whole race, Frederick 
Steinmark would not be this. It is not, Master Edward, the having 
possession of a morsel of written paper, which by the wicked laws of 
this sinful country is made to give one man a right to rob another of 
all that God bestowed upon him at his birth, — it is not holding this 
harmless paper, Master Edward, that can turn a good man into that 
accursed thing, a slave-holder. Even in this land of while man's sin 
and black man's suffering — even in Louisiana, there are some who 
have purchased a right to protect the negroes who willingly, joyfully, 
and gratefully work for them — for they are kindly treated. If Frede- 
rick Steinmark were a^ man to doubt that this is possible, I would bid 
him turn his benevOTent eyes, that seem to shed kindness upon all 
men, — I would bid him turn those gentle reasoning eyes to the Red 
River ; let him look into a wide-spread farm at Alexandria,* and he 
would see that a good man, living in the bosom of his family, may 
render labour light and servitude a blessing by ruling with a gentle 
hand and kind heart the race who are doomed to earn their bread by 
the sweat of their brow. This sight, if he have any scruples as to the 
righteousness of purchasing Caesar, may remove them. But your 
word, Master Edward, might perhaps do more still towards leading 
him to do this great good — and will you not speak it ?" 

* The family of Mr. F * ** 1 are living at this spot in a manner that shows, even 
by the happiness they shed around them, how little individual goodness can do, 
beyond its own immediate sphere, towards neutralizing the poison of laws which 
permit the institution of slavery to exist. Is there a single negro besides those 
whom he has given himself a right to protect, who are the better for the Christian 
philosophy of this excellent man? 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHFTLAW. 241 

Edward listened to the whole of this long speech with the most pa- 
tient attention, and then said, 

" You are right in believing that Mr. Steinmark would not neces- 
sarily become sinful by obtaining such possession of a slave as the 
laws of the country have power to give ; and I have little doubt that 
with such an object before him as the rescuing poor Caesar, he would 
conquer the repugnance he feels to such a transaction. But I do not 
comprehend, Juno, how this letter so strangely obtained by you from 
yourm aster, nor how my advice to him that he should act upon it, 
can render it possible for him to negociate the purchase of a runaway 
slave. You know, Juno, that I do not love tricks and mystery." 

Old Juno shook her head, and remained for a minute or two quite 
silent. Had any other so spoken to her, it is probable that her anger 
and indignation would have been pronounced in no measured terms ; 
but her respect for Edward Bligh was most profound, and her love and 
reverence for all the sacrifices of safety and of peace which he was 
making for the unhappy people to whom she belonged, invested him 
with a sort of sacred authority in her eyes, which rendered it impos- 
sible that she should express anger for anything he could say. 

Having subdued the feelings that might have led to disrespectful 
words, she replied with the utmost deference, ' ' Alas, Master Edward ! 
— how is such a one as I am to work out a good deed amongst the 
men we have got to deal with, except by tricks and seeming mystery? — 
Do you think, young gentleman, that if I were to go to Colonel Dart, 
or to Mr. Oglevie, and tell them the truth and no more, that all the 
dollars the good German has honestly w r on from our rich soil would 
induce either of them to resign Caesar to his keeping? — Ah, Master 
Edward ! you know them better than to believe it." 

" You are right — you are right, and perhaps I have been unjust to 
you, Juno," replied Edward kindly, and feeling indeed that she spoke 
the truth : "I will take this letter to Mr. Steinmark, and will trust 
to your using such means as you have to make his interference effectual. 
— Farewell." 

Juno watched him depart towards Reichland, rejoicing that she had 
found words to lead him to perform her will, which she certainly 
knew was a very honest one in this instance at least ; but spite of the 
gladness and even of the triumph that cheered her, a tear dimmed her 
eye as she looked after him. 

" Too good for earth — too fit for heaven to bide long with us," she 
muttered as she turned her steps homeward ; and she pondered upon 
his probable destiny, till she herself almost doubted whether the dark 
future that seemed to open before her eyes were simply the effect of 
conjecture, or of a revealing of that which was to come, such as was 
not given to the minds of others, 

10 



242 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

The old woman reached her hut weary and exhausted ; but the sight 
of Caesar's ecstasy at her probable success, as she sat beside the grave- 
like apartment he occupied and recounted all she had done, and all 
she hoped to do, acted as a restorative ; and before she slept, she con- 
trived to make the nervous Colonel Dart despatch a letter by the post, 
to Oglevie of the paper-factory, Ciceroville, requesting him for very 
particular reasons to accept the sum of one thousand dollars for Caesar 
Bush, which a gentleman in the neighbourhood of Paradise Planta- 
tions intended to offer him. The prudent colonel ended his letter, 
even without the help of Juno, by remarking that he was too well 
known a disciplinarian for Mr. Oglevie to suspect that he meant to 
encourage a runaway, but that circumstances made it very desirable 
that Mr. Steinmark should be obliged in this matter. 

Having thus well completed her day's work, Juno repaired to 
Peggy's hut, and received the reward of her benevolent labours from 
witnessing the joy her tidings occasioned. She led Phebe home with 
her as soon as everything appeared quiet, and once more permitted the 
sable lovers to enjoy the happiness of an interview, which not only 
the gay nature of Caesar, but the really promising condition of their 
affairs, rendered infinitely happier than the last. Lucky indeed was 
it for them that their old friend's measures had been so prompt and so 
successful, for an event occurred on the morrow which put them both 
as completely out of the head of the old woman as if they had never 
existed ; and as the relating this will oblige us to follow Juno to New 
Orleans, it may be stated here, that the negotiation for the purchase of 
Caesar being carried on exactly as she had dictated, proved completely 
successful. Frederick Steinmark paid a thousand dollars into the 
hands of an agent at Natchez, and received from him in return the 
documents necessary to give him the legal possession of Caesar, who 
accordingly was found by the Steinmark family the day but one fol- 
lowing the transaction busily engaged in earthing up sweet potatoes in 
the garden at Reichland. 

As before this happened old Juno was already on her way to New 
Orleans, it is probable that all the exertions made for Caesar would 
have been in vain had not Edward Bligh shrewdly surmised that in all 
human probability Phebe knew all about it; so as soon as the business 
was completed and the transfer of the runaway legally achieved, he 
repaired to the hut of Peggy, and told her and her daughter what had 
been done. It will not be doubted that Juno's ' 'company-chamber" was 
visited that night, or that the lovers enjoyed the reprieve from danger 
so unexpectedly obtained. No sooner, indeed, had darkness so far 
settled upon the woods as to render the annoyance of troublesome 
questionings tolerably unlikely, than Peggy herself, accompanied by 
her three daughters, repaired to Caesar's hiding-place, and returning 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 243 

thence to the laundry-house, enjoyed altogether an evening of greater 
happiness than they had tasted since the hour in which the slaves of 
the unfortunate Henry Bligh were put up for sale. 

Early on the following morning Caesar was already labouring in 
the garden of Reichland. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

It has been stated that Juno had again left Natchez for New Orleans 
before the good work in which she had so assiduously exerted herself 
was completed, and it is necessary that the cause of this sudden de- 
parture should be now laid before the reader. Early in the day which 
followed her last visit to Edward, Juno rambled down to Natchez- 
under-Hill for the purpose of making a visit to an old free negro who 
held the post of receiver-general of all letters, packages, messages, 
and advices of all sorts addressed to her by steam-boat from New 
Orleans. 

The place was not without profit and advantages of many kinds; 
but neither, on the other hand, was it by any means a sinecure, — for 
more negro gossip, Creole scandal, and plantation secrets were trans- 
mitted to the reputed sorceress by this old man, who never failed to 
board every boat that approached the landing for the purpose of col- 
lecting the different missions they were sure to bring, than it would 
have been possible for her to obtain by any other means. 

Hardly had Juno entered the hut which served as a mansion to the 
old man, than he presented to her a sealed packet which had arrived 
some hours before from New Orleans. She immediately retired, as 
was her custom whenever news reached her in this form, to a low shed 
behind the building, where, seated on a block of wood, she broke the 
seal, and with considerable eagerness set about reading the contents. 
It came from a person of no small importance in the circle in which he 
moved at New Orleans, being a free quadroon who for many years 
had carried on a very prosperous trade as a barber. The letter ran 
thus : — 

" Mis Juno. 
" This is from your frind Mr. Sam Wilmot. 1 have big news for you, Mis 
Juno. As sure as I live to tell it, your own truly-begot great-grand-daughter, 
Selina Croft by name, is living at this presint riling in New Orlines. This will 
make you star, Mis Juno, and well it may, for it is a grit and unaccountable in- 
terference of Provydance. So it is, howsoraeycr ; and it is of course that you will 

IS* 



244 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

come up, Mis Juno, and presint yourself to your posterity. I question if there is 
another in this big city that knows as much as I do of this rich and beautiful 
young lady ; and knowing, Mis Juno, the spite of our enimyes upon us, I'll tak 
good care that nobody shall know nothing from me. My three -pair-of-stairs 
back-granary is not ocpied at presint, Mis Juno, and you may rint the apartment 
as before. When you come, I will tell you all particlars how I made the discovery. 
But the best is, I'm pretty considerable sure that the father as brought her knows 
no more about her mother's decent than all the fine Creole folks as have made ac- 
quaintance with her. It is right and proper the young creature should be made to 
know her own blood relations ; but excepting herself, and maybe her father, if I 
was you, Mis Juno, I'd jest keep the secret, and you may guess pretty easy why, 
seeing that^lots of whites are making as much ado with her as if she was a right- 
down princess. It will be for certain, Mis Juno, a pleasure for you to see such a 
lily-white posterity. Arnt the whites unaccountable, Mis Juno, that cant see how 
easy it is for black blood to turn white ? 'Tis plain enough, that Goda'mighty has 
no objection whatsumever to it, at any rate. Good-by, Mis Juno, I shall be proud 
to see you, and I am your true friend 

" and most obedient humble servant, 

" Sam Wilmot." 

The effect produced by this letter on the body and soul of Juno was 
tremendous. Her limbs shook as if she had been seized by sudden 
palsy, and for some time all the powers of her mind seemed threaten- 
ing to leave her. All the strength and intellect left her were just suf- 
ficient to enable her to hide the precious letter in her bosom, and to 
totter forth from the place where she had read it into the open air, 
without uttering a single word of explanation to her puzzled agent. 

Having reached a retired spot by the river-side, where no eye was 
near to watch her, she sat or rather laid herself upon the ground, and 
gave free vent to the emotion that was swelling at her heart. It was 
long before the vehemence of her agitation subsided sufficiently to en- 
able her fully to be conscious what this news was to her ; but as some- 
thing like strength and composure returned, a feeling of happiness al- 
most too great to bear took possession of her, and there she continued 
stretched immoveable upon the earth for many hours, her memory 
recalling the long-distant past so vividly as to make all present and 
actual circumstances appear vague and indistinct by the comparison. 
Among all other things, the situation of Caesar was totally and alto- 
gether forgotten by her, and she at once decided upon going on board 
the first boat that should come down the river. The hoarded trea- 
sure of many years was always concealed about her person, and no 
preparation was necessary for her voyage except the obtaining such 
refreshment as might give her strength to mount to the deck. This 
she speedily procured, and then sat herself under the old thorn beside 
the landing, wailing with the stillness of a statue for the vessel that 
was to convey her to New Orleans. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 245 

The sun was setting when it arrived, but the hours she had waited 
had not been lost. She had passed this interval in earnest meditation 
on the great change she believed her hitherto sad destiny was about to 
undergo, and had so exactly arranged the manner of it, that all nervous 
agitation subsided, and she held herself prepared for the scenes in 
which she was to become a principal actor with a degree of firmness 
and resolution which communicated itself to her outward bearing, and 
enabled her, the morning after she reached New Orleans, to receive 
the greeting of Whitlaw with the calmness and composure that have 
been described. 

Several days elapsed after her arrival before she sought the inter- 
view which her heart both longed for and dreaded. It was not fear, 
however, which caused the delay, but prudence. On reaching New 
Orleans, she found her friend Mr. Sam Wilmot absent; and as it was 
chiefly to letters and memoranda in his possession that she must apply 
if the truth of her statement should be unhappily questioned, she 
postponed the awful visit till his return. 

Meanwhile, however, she wearied not of walking round and round 
the house that contained her treasure ; but the state and wealth that 
seemed to reign there shook her confidence, and the poor old woman 
lived in alternate paroxysms of hope and fear till the terrible moment 
which brought home to her heart the conviction that she could per- 
haps exercise a power that might blight the happiness of her descen- 
dant for ever, but that never, never could she hope either to give or 
receive the dear joy that affection alone can bestow, by claiming kin- 
dred with her. 

Had such a scene as that described between Juno and the fair Selina 
taken place some twenty years before, it is probable that it would 
have driven the old woman into raving madness ; but strong as her 
feelings still were, they were tame and tranquil compared to what they 
had been — and though her heart was wrung with a degree of anguish 
not easy to describe, her intellect stood the shock without her mani- 
festing any symptoms of her former malady. 

She shut herself up in her lonely garret, and for some days only left 
it for the purpose of taking necessary food. At length her mind was 
made up as to the line of conduct she should pursue, and doing her 
best to render her appearance decent, she descended the innumerable 
stairs, and requested a private interview with her friendly host Mr. 
Sam Wilmot, in his snug back parlour, at the early hour of seven in 
the morning. 

The request was immediately granted, and as Mr. Wilmot, in com- 
mon with many others, believed Juno to be free, she was desired to 
take a seat in his prosperous presence. 

"Mr. Sam," said Juno, making a powerful effort to restrain all 



246 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

outward demonstration of sorrow, "you have been a good and kind 
friend to me for many a year, and now at this last trial you have just 
done all that you thought would best please me. But things have not 
turned out just quite as I thought they might, and so, Mr. Sam, I 
expect I had better go home again. But this I cannot do in peace 
and quiet without your giving me a word of promise, Mr. Sam, that 
you will never, never, never breathe to mortal man, woman, or child, 
that the Englishman's fair daughter is come of negro race. Will you 
promise this to me, Mr. Sam ?" 

" If it will please you, Miss Juno, I will be happy to promise it ; 
though I can't but think 'tis but an unnatural thing too. However, I 
know better than to make or meddle, Miss Juno, with what does not 
concern myself, and I'm mum, you may 'pend upon it." 

Having obtained this assurance, old Juno once more took her way 
to the house of Mr. Croft. Wherever there are negroes, the entrance 
of a negro is easy : Juno had already propitiated the kindness of a 
black cook and scullion in the kitchen of Mr. Croft, and she was cour- 
teously received when she again made her entry there. 

"Can I see the young lady," she said, "before the business and 
bustle of the day begins? — I am going away to-day, and I have still 
something I must say to her." 

"Ah, Miss!" said the black cook shaking her head very mourn- 
fully, " you have brought sad work to pass. Is it true, I wonder, all 
that the white waiting-maid says — did you tell the young lady to her 
face that she was come of nigger blood ?" 

Juno was greatly shocked to hear that her interview with her still 
fondly-cherished Selina had been made thus public ; but finding that 
any farther attempt at concealment on her part must be in vain, she 
stated to her fellow-slave in plain terms the history of her relation- 
ship, and added, with as much composure as she could assume, that 
finding the knowledge of this gave the dear child too bitter pain and 
mortification to be endured, she was determined upon returning to her 
home at Natchez as soon as she should have once more seen and bade 
her farewell. 

" And fit and right too, miss, dat you should see your own, — for so 
she is, do all dat dey can to hinder it. I hab a child too, miss, and I 
know what it is to lub it." 

" Then you will let me see her," said Juno eagerly. 

" Ay, miss, without doubt. The proud white maid is a-bed still, 
but Venus shall take you to her room." 

Venus was accordingly summoned, and, to avoid disturbing Mr. 
Croft, led Juno by a back-stair to a door that opened into the young 
lady's dressing-room. She opened it gently, and pointing to that of 
the bed-chamber which stood half open, she said, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 247 

" Now go, miss, — she be your own blood and can't quarrel wid you ; 
but 1 must go down stairs 'gen, or I shall catch it from Miss Susan/ 

Saying this, the girl retired, leaving Juno to make her way alone 
into the presence of her estranged descendant. 

The old woman paused for a moment as if to take breath and revive 
her sinking courage, and then, making an effort to overcome the 
trembling at her heart, she pushed open the door and entered the bed- 
room of Selina. 

It was now past eight o'clock, but the bright daylight only found 
entrance there through the closed blinds, and on first going in, the 
effect to Juno's old eyes was that of almost perfect darkness ; but by 
degrees the objects became visible, and she perceived that the fair 
creature to whom she came to bid adieu was still in bed. The air of 
the room was loaded with the perfume of many flowers, and she ob- 
served as she advanced, that a variety of blossoms lay scattered on the 
floor and dressing-table. All was profoundly still. 

" She sleeps !" said Juno in a whisper; " sweet child ! — most beau- 
tiful Selina ! — she sleeps the sleep of innocence and peace ! " — Then 
softly approaching the bed, she continued, while her voice trembled 
with tenderness, ' ' I will kiss her as she sleeps ; she will not know it, 
— she will not shrink from the hateful touch now, and at least I shall 
have lived to do that which my soul hath longed for through weary 
years. Selina ! — my own Selina !" 

The faint light sufficed to show her, as she drew near, the fair young 
face that rested immovable upon the pillow; the odour of sweet 
flowers became stronger still, and Juno, as she gazed between the 
curtains, perceived with surprise that the profusion of dark hair that 
flowed like sable drapery on each side the face was bound by a wreath 
of orange-blossoms. The face beneath was whiter than they ; and as 
the dim-eyed old woman gazed upon it, a strange terror seized her. 

"Does she live? — does she breathe?" she cried, stretching out a 
shaking hand to touch her forehead. That touch shot like an ice- 
bolt through her heart, for her hand rested on the cold marble brow 
of death. 

"Oh, God ! — I have killed her !" — shrieked Juno in bitter agony ; 
"she saw me, she knew me, and she died !" 

The old woman dropped on her knees beside the bed and sobbed 
aloud. Earnestly, most earnestly did she pray that the pang which 
wrung her heart might end her being ; but she still lived to look upon 
that pale and innocent face, so beautiful in death, so like the lovely 
visions that for long years had visited her dreams, and the terrible 
idea that her approach had killed her, drew forth the heaviest groans 
that her long-tortured spirit had ever uttered. 

At length her reeling sense became calmer, and she remembered 



248 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

that the dead Selina was already cold when she first stretched out her 
hand to touch her. This thought for a moment seemed to bring re- 
lief, and she rose from her knees and looked around to discover if 
possible the cause and manner of her death. 

Near to the bed stood a small writing-table, and on it lay a sealed 
letter. Juno seized it, and with little thought for whom it was in- 
tended, broke it open instantly, and, removing one of the blinds, read 
with some difficulty the following lines : 

" My father, ere these words meet your eyes, your miserable Selina will be no 
more. .But grieve not for this, kind and dear father! — she will be at rest, and 
that she could never be as long as life flowed through veins stained like hers. 
Father ! that man — that Whitlaw, whom my soul abhorred as if by instinct — he 
knows the dreadful secret of my birth. — He has been here, father; he has loaded 
me with insult — he permitted me to sit in his presence as a matter of grace and 
favour — he offered, as an honour, to make me his mistress. Father! father! — 
forgive me! I cannot live to remember this. — My destiny, my frightful destiny is 
the will of God. I know it, father ; 1 know that this dreadful will was stamped 
upon my wretched race thousands of years ago. — But the Saviour has been since — 
the curse will not cling to us for ever ! — Let me go to him — he will pity and receive 
me. And you too, father, pity and forgive me. I have this night taken bread 
and wine with you in His name, through you knew it not; and I felt it was a holy 
sacrament, and you blessed me. — But do not wish me to live and hear again such 
words as Whitlaw spoke to me to-day. No, father, no; I cannot live! — my pu- 
nishment is greater than I can bear. Farewell ! — kind and dear father, farewell ! 
— we shall meet in heaven. 

" Selina." 

In many places there were traces of tears upon the paper, and the 
whole of it was evidently written in great and terrible agitation. But 
the deliberate preparation — the wreath that bound her virgin brow — 
the flowers that were strewed 'upon her couch — and still more, the 
supper of bread and wine to which she alluded, plainly showed that it 
was not in a moment of sudden agony that she resigned her life, but 
that many hours of meditation had preceded the act. A small bottle, 
labelled "Laudanum," which made part of their travelling medicine- 
chest, stood on the toilet, and indicated with sufficient clearness the 
manner of her death. 

Slowly and with faltering steps did Juno pace round the fatal cham- 
ber, conning over every object that served to interpret the tale of woe 
of which it was the scene. It seemed that the unhappy girl had 
placed herself on the ground to prepare her funeral wreath ; for at 
one point the floor was strewed with fragments of leaves and stems, 
and close beside it stood her toilet-stool, covered with the relics of the 
beautiful gleaning which she had gathered with her own hands and 
borne in her bosom to her chamber. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 240 

With her habitual acuteness, nothing blunted by the sorrow at her 
heart, Juno pondered on all she saw, till every scene and act of the 
tragedy became intelligible to her. Then did she sadly turn again to 
the light, and once more peruse the letter of Selina. 

There is ever a strong propensity in the human mind to exonerate 
the conscience from its share of whatever suffering weighs upon the 
spirits, by laying the guilt that produced it on another. Juno's first 
pang as she gazed on the dead Selina was that of self-reproach. It 
was her thoughtless and selfish pride that had brought sorrow and 
destruction on the unhappy girl, and gladly would she have redeemed 
the fault by resigning her own remnant of life to restore her. But 
now it was Whitlaw against whom all the auguish that wrung her 
heart turned for atonement and revenge : it was no longer herself, but 
the detested Whitlaw who had laid her low ; and the springs of life 
seemed renewed in their energy as she once more dropped upon her 
knees beside the bed of death, and registered in heaven a vow of fear- 
ful vengeance. 

She arose from her terrible orison, calm, firm, and confident in 
strength ; and replacing the letter on the desk, returned by the way 
she came, just as the hand of the English waiting-maid was attempt- 
ing in vain to open the usual door of entrance to the chamber of her 
mistress. 

Greatly to the comfort of Juno, she found her way out of the house 
without interruption ; and shrinking from the task of relating the 
scene she had witnessed to any one, she instantly determined, with 
her usual promptitude of action, to leave New Orleans immediately. 

"At home," she muttered, — "it is at home, on my own silent, 
quiet hut, that all the thoughts that now roll through my brain like 
the dark clouds of a coming thunder-storm must be gathered together 
— and then they will take form and substance — and then they will 
burst— and then the bolt will fall!" 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 

After leaving the presence of Selina, Whitlaw again visited Hogs- 
town, and related to him with great glee the amusing narrative of her 
newly-discovered birth and kindred. 

"Arn't it capital, Hogstown?" said he, rubbing his hands and 
chuckling with delight. " The story wouldn't have been that bad, if it 
had happened to a proud Creole miss who had presumed to turn up her 



250 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

nose at one; but to overtake the heiress daughter of a d— d proud 
Englishman, is altogether one of the best bits of fun as I ever came 
across with. Arn't it capital V 

The story was certainly one likely to find favour with many at New 
Orleans ; and as the young man judged, from the manner in which 
his proposals for keeping it secret had been received by the hapless 
Selina, that there was no very good chance of his being paid for his 
silence, he indulged himself by repeating it with great animation and 
spirit, both at the billiard and rouge-et-noir tables, which he visited 
the night after his last interview with her. 

Towards noon on the following day, some rumours of the terrible 
catastrophe began to spread through the city. The physician who was 
called in by the wretched father to see if any remains of life still lin- 
gered at the heart of his unfortunate child, reported the adventure 
wherever he went, together with the vows of vengeance breathed by 
the bereaved parent against him to whom the last communication of 
his daughter pointed as the cause of the act which had left him child- 
less. 

These rumours soon reached Whitlaw ; and if old Juno look her de- 
parture with celerity for the purpose of arranging more at her ease the 
schemes of vengeance she meditated, Whitlaw's movements were at 
least equally rapid and decisive in quitting the scene where alone he 
believed any disagreeable consequences were likely to follow the part 
he had acted in the tragedy, which was becoming every hour more 
universally the theme of conversation. 

It was hard, certainly, to be obliged so suddenly to quit a place so 
every way agreeable to him ; but Whitlaw was nevertheless far from 
insensible to the consolation that this necessity had not overtaken him 
before he had realised such a sum as to make his retirement with it 
decidedly a matter of triumph. He went, too, with the pleasant con- 
viction that he had been " handsomely revenged" for the twofold in- 
jury he had received at New Orleans; namely, the abduction of his 
money, and the scorning of his love ; so, after a long and confidential 
conversation with Hogstown, who promised to supply him with all 
the information which his rapid retreat prevented his acquiring, he too 
took leave of New Orleans. 

Hogstown kindly accompanied him to the water's edge; and his 
parting words were, ' ' Remember them varmint Germans, Whitlaw. 
I shan't be long after, I expect : and if between us we can't clear 'em 
out, 'twill be queer, I guess." 

" I'll do what I can to be ready for ye, my man," was the laugh- 
ing reply. " I've a notion, Hogstown, that you and I together might 
do pretty nigh anything we set our wits to — hey ?" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW . 251 

"Maybe we might, Master Whitlaw. But off with ye — she's 
puffing like mad. Don't forget the parson neither. — Good-bye." 

It was fortunate for Juno's equanimity that she escaped the chance 
of seeing Whitlaw on board the vessel that conveyed her to Natchez. 
Little as the communion between blacks and whites might be, she 
could hardly have been in the same boat without seeing him, and she 
was in a state of mind to render such a meeting very dangerous to 
herself at least. As it was, she reached her lonely dwelling without 
seeing or hearing anything to disturb the sort of artificial calm into 
which she had brought herself, and upon which depended, as she 
justly believed, her best chance of success in the new project she me- 
ditated. 

The night on which she reached her home was passed in the silence 
and solitude she longed for, but without the relief of a single moment's 
sleep. She laid herself upon her bed, indeed, but her over-excited 
faculties seemed to have recovered all the vigour of youth, and she re- 
traced with steady and unfailing recollection the long account of all 
she had endured from the tyrannous power usurped over her unoffend- 
ing race by the cruel strength of their white brethren. She re- 
membered the wanton development of all the faculties in herself 
which had opened so many new avenues of torture to her heart, — 
the light breath of love that had passed over her like the idle breeze of 
the false-seeming spring, feeling like the sweet air of heaven, but 
proving a blighting blast that cankered and mildewed her poor heart 
for ever. She recalled with maddening truth the first warm touch of 
her dear infant's lips upon her bosom, — the last agonising kiss that she 
was permitted to press upon them as she was torn away from her ; the 
savage transfer of her loathing person to another — the brutal force 
that kept her soul and body in a subjection that seemed to make every 
breath she drew a poison to her nature, — her long, her patient un- 
requited service, — her dishonoured age — the conscious treasures of her 
mind converted to foolery and fraud. She remembered all — all that 
she might have been, all that in truth she was. And then came the 
closing item to this dread account — her lovely, her innocent, her own 
Selina — the being that her long-suffering life had passed in dreaming 
of, laid dead and stiff before her by the blasting breath of a reptile 
whose immortal soul she felt to be as much beneath her own in dignity, 
as he dared hold her unoffending race to his. — " Shall he escape me, 
God of justice! " exclaimed the aged sufferer, trembling and exhausted 
by the long backward course her too faithful memory had run, — 
"shall he escape?" 

Some feeling arising from a consciousness of the power she held 
over many human agents stole soothingly upon he,r senses, and just as 



252 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

night was giving place to morning, Juno fell into so profound a sleep 
that the light was again fading when she woke from it. 

It was then indeed the touch of Phebe's hand upon her shoulder, 
rather than the natural end of her deep repose, which at length caused 
old Juno to open her eyes, and once more to feel with a sigh that she 
was still numbered with the living. 

"Oh, Juno! you are come back at last!" exclaimed Phebe, in a 
voice of such cheerful gaiety that the old woman looked at her with 
surprise. " How very glad I am to see you ! — how I have longed to 
kiss and thank you, Juno !" 

"Thank me — for what, Phebe? — what have I done to please 
you?" 

" Oh, Juno ! — can you ask that question, and I the happiest girl 
in the wide world, and all your doing, Juno ; for wasn't I the most 
miserable, poor broken-hearted soul that ever cried through the live- 
long night, till you set about to help me ?" 

"And where is Caesar, then?" said Juno, suddenly recollecting 
herself. 

" Where should he be," replied the laughing Phebe, "but just 
where it was your pleasure and will that he should be, Juno? — And, 
do you know, mother," she continued more gravely, "I have truly 
need of all my Christian knowlege to keep me from believing that 
you have indeed some spirits to do your bidding; — but they are good 
spirits, Juno, at any rate, and your power, let it be what it will, must, 
I am very sure, come to you from Heaven." 

" I am glad you are so happy, Phebe," said the poor old woman, 
while an unseen tear trembled in her eye. 

"How I do love you, Juno!" cried Phebe, throwing her arms 
round her friend's neck, and giving her a most cordial kiss. 

" Do you, my poor girl ?" replied Juno, while the tear rolled down 
her cheek. " I am glad you are not white, Phebe." 

" Good gracious !" exclaimed the gay-hearted girl, again laughing 
heartily; " that is queer to be thankful for. However, I don't care 
now what colour I am : if Master Whitlaw don't come back to plague 
me, I shall be as happy as a lily-white queen." 

A quivering shudder passed through every limb of Juno as she 
heard the name ; but Phebe saw it not, and though it was in some sort 
received as law throughout the estate that no one was to question Juno 
concerning her frequent journeyings, the gay state of her spirits at the 
present moment led her to transgress the law, and she said, "How 
very long you have been away, Juno '.—Where can you have been 
to ? — and how many times do you think Caesar and I have come after 
work-hours to look for you ?" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 253 

M I shall go away no more, Phebe," replied the old woman, gently, 
and without any symptom of the displeasure which an inquiry would 
have formerly produced. 

" No !" rejoined the girl cheerfully; "that's good news at any rate, 
for you are never away, Juno, that I don't wish you back again. — 
But now, good night! Get to sleep again as fast as you can, for I 
must be off; for, you see, I just think it's possible the smart new 
gardener at Reichland may take it into his head to pay mother a visit 
to-night." And with these words, she was tripping away, when Juno 
stopped her by saying, in a very feeble voice, 

"Phebe, dear, I have eaten nothing this day. Look on the shelf 
there, before you go ; and if you can find a morsel of corn-cake, give 
it to me." 

"My — ! not eaten to-day! — oh, how bad you must be, Juno! 
But where's the meal, and where's the tinder-box ? — you don't think 
you're going to eat cake a hundred years old, Juno ?" And without 
waiting for an answer, the active, helpful girl bustled about till she 
found what she sought, and in marvellously little time two or three 
light Johnny-cakes (which, being interpreted, mean journey-calces -, 
from the rapidity with which they may be prepared) smoked on a 
board before a blazing fire. Materials for the universal beverage, 
coffee, were also found, and in a few minutes the failing strength of 
poor Juno was recruited by the refreshment she so greatly needed. 

"But your Caesar is waiting for you all this time, Phebe," said the 
old woman, as if to try the constancy of the assiduous kindness that 
was so warmly demonstrated. 

"Well!" replied the sable beauty, "if he is not tired with his 
waiting to-night, he may come again to-morrow — thanks to your 
kindness, Juno ! and God Almighty bless you for it!" 

" I am very glad you are not white, Phebe," reiterated Juno ; "but 
go away home now, dear, perhaps he mayn't be gone yet." 

" Go away home, Juno ? and leave you to eat and drink by your- 
self — and you not over-well, I expect, either ? I tell you, Juno dear, 
that we will just see if Master Caesar will be affronted, or if he will come 
again orderly and civil to-morrow night, as he ought to do. — Don't 
fancy you have done yet, Juno. Here's another beautiful cake, better 
baked and lighter than either ; and while you eat it, I'll tell you all 
the news. And, first, as in duty bound, I must tell you of our colo- 
nel ; and he's sick, they say, and has taken it into his head that he's 
poisoned, because his blessed clerk is not here to watch him : that's 
the best news from the great house. And dear blessed Miss Lucy has 
been out to see us, and came, bless her, in the middle of the night, 
though she had got to go back to Natchez. And you've been gone two 



254 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Sundays, Juno, and the people haven't one of them budged an inch 
towards the forest for prayer-meeting, because, they say, you did not 
tell them that they might go ; and our master Edward has been sorely 
vexed about it, Juno. But now you are come again, all will go right, 
won't it?" 

" It was a sin to forget it, Phebe ; but I did forget it, and may God 
forgive me ! but we shall have need to watch as fwell as to pray, 
Phebe, for the drivers are like ravening wolves after all who would 
teach us God's word." 

" I expect, Juno, that is because they think God's word too good 
and precious for us blacks, and so they would keep it for their own 
use and salvation. But if Master Edward speaks right — and I am 
not going to doubt it — some of it w r as meant for us ; and them who 
would rob us of the share intended for our use, Juno, will have a 
worse sin to answer for, I expect, than if they stole the colonel's 
silver plate big cup that they tell of, and all. Don't you think they 
will, Juno?" 

" It is a joy to think it, Phebe," said the old woman, eagerly, and 
with an expression of countenance far unlike the gentle look of the 
well-taught and truly Christian Phebe : "it is a joy to believe that all 
will be made even hereafter ; and for that belief, if for nothing else, 
every slave should be a Christian." 

" I don't want it to be paid 'em back in full, neither, Juno," said 
Phebe gently; "and I don't think quite that it will — God is too 
pitiful for that." 

But here the discussion was interrupted by the sudden appearance 
of Caesar, who, with the faith of a true heart, in the affection of his 
sable love, felt sure that as she was not at home to receive him, she 
must be attending some duty that detained her elsewhere. The re- 
mote hut of old Juno, their common benefactress, was therefore the 
spot where he sought her, instead of amidst the gossiping gatherings 
together of the slaves, who were many of them eating their suppers in 
the open air. 

" I thought so !" exclaimed he, gaily entering the hut, after listen- 
ing for a moment at the door of it ; "I thought where I should find 
Miss Phebe. And how is our dear mother, Phebe ? I am thankful 
she is come back to us ; for they do so talk of her at our house, and 
our Miss Lotte wants to see her again so much, that it will be a glory 
to tell 'em she's home again. Ah, mother !" continued he, laughing, 
I'm not after bringing Phebe any more beef-steaks now. But Master 
Edward says we shall have a decent Christian wedding in the forest — 
and he will do the parson's part himself, God bless him ! and we've 
onlv waited for you, Juno, to bring the congregation back to witness 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 255 

it — for there isn't a man or woman of them all, as I find from mother 
Peggy, that will budge a step to pray in the woods till you tell 'em 
there's no danger." 

Caesar stopped for a moment to take breath, and Juno seized the 
opportunity to ask him if he was contented with his new place. 

" Contented, mother! — oh, 'tis like being in heaven, or back with 
old master inKenluck over again. Each one of 'em all tries to beat 
all the rest in kindness to the poor runaway ; and only that they are 
afraid to make mischief, or they would come every soul of them to 
make acquaintance with my wife that is to be : and my beautiful Miss 
Lotte tells me that she means to be after coaxing you, Juno, to persuade 
your sour old colonel to sell Phebe to my master. Will you, Juno ? 
do you think you can ? Say, Juno ?" 

"f There's few things impossible, Caesar, except making a thorough- 
going slave-driving white man fit for heaven. Don't ask this of me, 
for I won't try it : but I'll do what I can, my children, to make you 
both content, for you are black and innocent and kind-hearted, and 
you deserve to be happy. And now away with you both ! Back to 
your mother, Phebe, or maybe she'll be uneasy for you. Good night, 
my children, good night!" 

" Good night, dear mother ! good night!" repeated Caesar, taking 
Phebe's hand, and appearing to be leading her off, but lingering at 
every step to say another happy word. 

• ' Think, mother, if you could get Phebe there, what a life she 
would lead, always waiting upon Miss Lotte maybe, as she did be- 
fore, or precious Miss Lucy. And Miss Lotte's going to be married 
too, they do so say, — just think of that, mother : and the Herr 
Hochland maybe will take us both to a free country — think of that, 
mother." 

" And I just want to go to sleep again— think of that, Caesar, "said 
old Juno good-humour edly ; "so just go your ways home, both of you, 
and we'll see what can be done for Phebe." 

The happy pair retreated ; but though soothed and softened by the 
endearments of those who truly loved her, the wounded spirit of the 
miserable old women did not again find rest till many hours had been 
spent by her in meditating on the scheme of her revenge. Agents 
of powerful physical strength would be needed to execute the plan 
that had taken possession of her soul, and for a moment she thought 
that the strongfeelings and profound gratitude of Caesar pointed him 
out as one well fitted to aid her purpose. 

"He has good reason to hate the wretch, as well as I have," thought 
she; "and by doing my terrible bidding, he would not only cancel 
the debt of gratitude he owes me, but make me for ever his debtor. 
Where can I find another so bound to me as he? 



256 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

But something at her heart told her, that holy as she deemed the 
vengeance she proposed to take, it would not accord with the principles 
in which Caesar was reared, to join her in it. 

"He bears so light, so innocent a heart," thought she, "that it 
were deadly sin to lay on it the weight of blood. I — even I, bound 
by a thousand iron chains to do the deed — shall I ever sleep after it as 
I did through the long peaceful hours of this day? Will not the 
ghastly blood-stained visage ever rise before me ? — shall I not see his 
young hair matted stiff in blood? I shall — I shall, and Selina will be 
avenged ! Waking or sleeping, my harassed spirit will still rejoice ; 
for I shall have accomplished my destiny. — But poor Caesar, happy, 
light-hearted boy ! he shall know nothing of it. There are others— 
alas, too many ! — who groan in the chains this wretch has tightened 
round them, and they will feel as I do, that when they grapple for his 
life, they do but perform the duty to which fate has called them. — No, 
Caesar shall know nothing of it." 

And as she came to this resolution, she turned on her hard pillow, 
and once more dropped asleep. 



CHAPTER XL. 

CESAR'S first care on the ensuing morning was to repair to the 
dwelling of Edward Bligh. No longer under the lash of a task-master, 
he feared not to steal from sleep an hour or two for his garden, that 
with a safe conscience he might for the same space leave his work 
upon a business so very near his heart as the informing his first and 
kindest friend, that old Juno was returned, and only waited his orders 
to give notice to" the people" to again assemble themselves that they 
might have the Gospel preached to them.—' 'And then , Master Edward," 
continued Caesar, looking timidly in Edward's eyes for his consent — 
"then we may be married — Phebe and I, Master Edward ? — may we? 

" Alas my poor fellow ! " replied Edward mournfully, " I am no 
ordained minister, nor even an appointed magistrate to do] this for 
you ; but yet I do believe that in the eyes of the Most High the cere- 
mony that shall be read to you under the arch of Heaven even by me 
shall suffice to bless your union." 

" That means that you will do it, sir? " said Caesar, bewildered, 
and breathless with hope and joy. 

" It does, Caesar. I will not refuse to aid you as best I can in 
this. And tell old Juno, since it is her voice only that can give them 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 257 

courage to lift their hearts to God — tell old Juno, Caesar, to lead the 
people to me at the usual hour on next Sabbath night. My heart 
yearns to meet them ; but it is yet five days to it." 

"Dreadful long time ! dreadful long time ! " murmured Ceesar as, 
after many bows and thanks, he withdrew. " Why did not old Juno 
come home Saturday ? " 

He hastened back to his work ; but having reached the garden, he 
felt so infinitely too happy to know what he was about, and so certain 
that he would do more harm than good there, that upon seeing Lotte 
and the Herr Hochland walking under the avenue of peach-trees at 
the bottom of the garden, he ran towards them, and clasping his hands 
together with a look that seemed to say, r" You too must understand 
all about it," he implored their interest to procure him a day's holi- 
day from "the master." 

"Oh, Miss Lotte! when one is going to be married, you see, the 
head will run upon it, do what one will. Don't it, master? And what 
good is it to stand with a hoe or a spade in one's hand, if one can't tell 
for the life of one where one ought to stick it first ? Will ye speak a 
word for me, Miss Lotte? I will pray that you may both be jest as 
happy as I am now, if you will but get me this one day's holiday. 
For there's my poor Phebe, Miss Lotte, don't know it yet; and how 
should you like, Miss Lotte, to be left in ignorance so ? " 

"I'll go, I'll go, Ceesar," cried Lotte, running off very swiftly. — 
" And I'll help too, Ceesar," said the young baron in his best English, 
as he flew after her. 

Such a request, to such a quarter, and seconded by such interest, 
was not likely to fail, and in a few moments Caesar was bounding over 
ziz-zag fences, wide ditches, and stumps innumerable, to communicate 
to the lady of his heart, that master Edward had consented to marry 
them on the ensuing Sabbath in the midst of the forest congregation. 

The young Phebe received the intelligence with tears and smiles, 
and burned her taper fingers with the iron she was employing upon 
one of the colonel's own shirts, in her efforts to keep her volatile bride- 
groom in order. But, less happy than him, she dared not leave her 
allotted task, and finding that his presence was far from aiding her in 
the performance of it, she begged him to leave her till the hours of 
labour were over. 

" Now isn't that altogether unreasonable, Phebe? — and can't I help 
her, mother Peggy? — and did anybody ever send off a poor fellow at 
such lime before? " To all which he received for answer that go he 
must, or that Phebe would get punished for scorching the linen. See- 
ing, however, that he looked really and truly miserable, his gentle- 
hearted mistress found him an occupation for his holiday at once de- 
lightful to him and gratifying to herself. 

17 



258 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

"There is a thing, Caesar, that you could do to-day," she said, "that 
would be better than helping me spoil all the colonel's clothes, and it 
would make next Sabbath a blessed day indeed ! " 

"And a blessed day it will be, Phebe, as ever God-a'mighty made — 
don't you be doubting that : but £ell me, Phebe dear, what is it I can 
do to please you?" 

" Can you walk to Natchez, Caesar? Can you find out my own dear 
Miss Lucy? Can you tell her, Caesar, what is going to be? And can 
you beg her, for the sake of the precious love she has ever shown her 
poor Phebe, to stand by her on next Sabbath night? " 

" Can I? — and will I? — and won't I?" cried the happy Caesar, 
capering like a young Newfoundland-dog when a favourite hand has 
thrown a stone or a stick for him to follow. "I expect 1 will, Miss 
Phebe ; and I expect that I will bring you word too, that she's most 
as happy as you are, and that shs'll come and stand by you in the 
moonshine, looking jest like an angel as she is." 

The young lover then snatched a kiss as his self-allolted reward for 
this agreeable prophecy, and instantly set off upon his mission. 

When the heart is light and beats gaily, the step in general keeps 
time with it, — and so it was with Caesar. In little more than half an 
hour after receiving his mistress's commands, he entered the door of 
Mrs. Shepherd's store at Natchez, and standing before her very re- 
spectfully cap in hand, begged to know if he could speak a word to 
Miss Lucy Bligh. 

"And who may you be sent by?" said the sour Mrs. Shepherd 
with the glance of an inquisitor. 

She could hardly have put an inquiry in a more puzzling form. 
Whom was Caesar sent by? certainly by the most charming slave in 
the world, and the very particular friend and favourite of the young 
lady he had asked for ; but he knew well enough, poor fellow, that 
this would not avail him, for a slave was but a slave after all. He 
changed his altitude twice before he had decided what it would be best 
to answer, and then said, 

"lam jest come from Colonel Dart's plantation, mistress, and 'tis 
by one there that I am sent." 

"One there?- — and do you think, you stupid fellow! that I shall let 
my young ladies be called out from their work to see a nigger that is 
sent by one at Colonel Dart's plantation? One what, pray? — one nig- 
ger, perhaps?" 

Poor Caesar had not a word to say for himself in answer to this 
shrewd conjecture, and having twisted himself about for a minute in 
very evident embarrassment, he ended by saying, ' ' It would be right- 
down kind of you, mistress, jest to let me speak a minute to Miss 
Lucy." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 250 

' "I do wonder what the niggers will come to!" exclaimed Mrs. 
Shepherd, turning to a gentleman who was cheapening cotton neck- 
cloths. " Now did you ever, sir? 1 expect you'd better be after 

returning the way you came, you saucy fellow, and not bide here look- 
ing to be waited upon by the young ladies of my establishment." 

" Tis pretty considerable cool, that's a fact," replied the customer. 
— " Mayhap, my fine fellow, you may be sent with a love-token to the 
young lady?" 

" Like enough, sir," said Mrs. Shepherd tartly. " Let's see what 
you've brought, young man ;" and she held out her hand to receive the 
suspected love-letter. 

" Not I, indeed, mistress!" exclaimed Caesar. " Miss Lucy isn't 
one to receive love-letters that fashion. Please, mistress, let me jest 
speak one little word to her." 

" You are a very impudent fellow to stand there persevering at me 
that rate. Do you expect that I sit here to do your errands, and run 
backwards and forwards to fetch out my young ladies from their work 
to talk to all the black niggers in town? Be off, if you please, and 
quit — you'd best, I can tell you, before I fetch them that will make 

ye." 

" And so, mistress, you positive won't let me speak to Miss Lucy 
Bligh?" said Caesar, with something like indignation in his lone. 

11 My — !" exclaimed Mrs. Shepherd, " you are going to knock me 
down, I expect! Jest hear him, sir. People may well say that the 
niggers will get to be our masters if we don't look sharp." 

"I say, my black prince," said the cheapener of neckcloths, *' I 
expect you had belter quit before w T orse comes. Off with ye, and be 
thankful." 

The gentleman raised his cane as he spoke, and poor Csesar, his 
heart swelling with vexation, silently turned from them andleft the 
shop. 

" A first-rate black blackguard that, Mrs. Shepherd! He looked 
monstrous as if he'd like to eat us both up, bones and all. A couple of 
hundred lashes would do him a deal of good, I guess. What was the 
gal's name as he asked for?" 

" Bligh, Mr. Smith ; Miss Lucy Bligh. She hasn't been with me 
long, and I calculate she won't, if she's to have such followers as that 
chap after her. A pretty life I shall have to lead, if I'm to sit here and 
be bullied by all the niggers in town and country as choose to come in 
messages to my gals!". 

"Bligh?" repeated Mr. Smith, without appearing to hear this 
tirade. " That's queer too ; and the name's not that common neither. 
I say, Mrs. Shepherd, do you happen to know anything about that gal 
Bligh?" 

17* 



260 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

"Why, perhaps not altogether so much as I ought, Mr. Smith, 
seeing that I has set her to work with ladies of such good standing as 
mine. But she's no bad needle, and not much to complain of in the 
way of manner; but I don't know what her raising has been, that's a 
fact." 

" Well, now, do you know, Mrs. Shepherd, I'm altogether curious 
to find out something about her, and not without good reason neither. 
I needn't tell such a sensible woman as you, that these are ticklish 
times, Mrs. Shepherd, and that it behoves the masters to look pretty 
sharp after the slaves; for, thanks to them eternal English, there's 
damnable doctrines going." 

"You may say that, Mr. Smith !" responded Mrs. Shepherd with a 
sigh. 

" But after all, Mrs. Shepherd, it isn't half so much the niggers 
themselves, as the rascally whites, that puts 'em up to mischief and 
emancipation, and the devil's own laws about slavery, that we have got 
to fear. Lord bless your soul ! if the d — d missionary chaps would 
but let them alone, the nigger* beasts would go on, and be born and 
flogged, and work and die, world everlasting amen, and nobody say a 
word against it, good, bad, or indifferent. 'Tis these canting hypocrites, 
I tell you, with their Bibles and their preachments, that does all the 
damage ; and 'tis against them, you see, as in duty bound, that we 
gentlemen planters are setting our strength. And that brings me round 
to this name of Bligh, Mrs. Shepherd. I know I may trust you, for 
your principles are sound : I remember the plague and trouble you got 
into about the flogging that gal that died afterwards, and how powerful 
you spoke up against the French surgeon that wanted to make you 
answerable. You conducted throughout like a true-hearted Louisia- 
nian and a patriot. We've none of us forgot it, I promise you; and 
that's one reason, I take it, why you have the best Creole custom in 
Natchez." 

Mrs. Shepherd smiled very complacently at the compliment, and 
modestly replied, that it was always her study to follow to the best of 
her power the example set her by the gentry of the best standing in 
the state, — " But what was it, Mr. Smith," she added, " that you was 
going to say to me about the name of Bligh?" 

" I'll tell you exact and confidential, Mrs. Shepherd ; and the affair's 
no trifling one neither, I can tell you. You know Hogstown? him 
that was overseer, I mean, to General Dissequeur, for so many years. 
Well, we've all subscribed and handsome top, to give Hogstown a 
salary for keeping a look-out far and near for all strangers suspected 
of preaching and praying. We couldn't have hit upon a better man, I 
promise ye. He's first-rate, upon my word, quite remarkable, and I 
calculate that we may be lucky enough to find an example before long 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 201 

to try a little Lynch-law upon. Depend upon it, Mrs. Shepherd, 
there's nothing as would do us so much good as that. But to come to 
the point, you must know that Hogslown has got his eye upon a young 
fellow called Bligh, that hails from Kentucky by his own account — but 
at any rale he is a stranger in these parts; and Hogslown has fished 
out, the Lord knows how, that this Bligh is dreadful pitiful and lender- 
hearted over the niggers, and that he frequents a family of German 
foreigners, downright anli-slavery folks, for they're as rich as Jews, 
and yet don't own a slave, and a deal more beside about him that I 
can't justly remember; but it all goes lo this, thai he thinks there's a 
prelty considerable good chance of bringing him in guilty of some of 
the damnable preaching and praying practices that we're on the look- 
out for : and if he succeeds, we're agreed among ourselves, Mrs. 
Shepherd, to get up a sort of a riot, you see, to set at him; and then, 
if happens that Ihey let blood, why 'twill do a deal of good to the state, 
you may depend upon that ; for there's great symptoms of fever about, 
I can tell you." 

" You need not tell me that, Mr. Smith, — I'm sorry to say I know 
it over well myself. I can't sleep for thinking of it ; and happy and 
thankful will I be if anything can be done for the public good, and to 
keep all quiet. God grant that it may last out my lime! but I do 
think there's mischief brewing, Mr. Smilh." 

" You an't the only one that lies awake in Louisiana for that, Mrs. 
Shepherd. And so, you see, there's reason good for picking up one's 
ears for such a name as Bligh. Do you think, ma'am, 'tis possible the 
young woman can be any kin to him? 

" The most possible thing in the whole world, Mr. Smith ; and I'd 
wager a dollar to a cent that I've had the very identical man in my 
store, sir. I think 'lis a matter of a month ago, or near it, that a 
pale, tall, soft-spoken young man, altogether a stranger lo me and 
mine, and, I expect, to all Natchez into the bargain, come herespeer- 
ing for needle-work for his sister. I wasn't over and above inclined 
to have anything to say to him, that's a fact; but I happened to have a 
deal of pressing work in the house, and I was afraid of my life that I 
should be obligated to disappoint one or two planters' ladies as was in 
a vast hurry for their things, and so I yielded just for a trial, and the 
gal come over in a waggon the next market-day from somewhere back 
in the woods, and here she's been ever since. But if the chap's her 
brother, I suppose he's too much taken up with some of his unlawful 
doings to think much about her, for she come by herself, and he's 
never been here to look after her since." 

"Well, that's remarkable too, an't it? — and the coming of this 
young nigger to visit her, without having a single word to say for 
himself as to who sent him? For certain it might help us out con- 



202 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

siderable, Mrs. Shepherd, if we could certify that this gal's brother is 
the chap that Hogstown has got his eye upon : and then, you know, 
we'd get you to watch her a spell; and we might wait from July to 
eternity before we found out a slicker way to come at him." 

" You speak sense, Mr. Smith, and trust to me for having eyes in 
my head. But, first and foremost, we ought to come to an enlight- 
enment upon the point of whether the man is the right man or not ; 
and I expect that you could conduct so as easy to make this plain, 
sir." 

" Why, I don't rightly know how at this present moment, seeing 
that Hogstown isn't come back yet from New Orlines — at least I expect 
not. But I'll tell you, Mrs. Shepherd, who I saw in town to-day, as 
'cute a chap and as true a well-wisher to the cause as Hogstown him- 
self — and that's young Whitlaw." 

" Very true indeed, sir, he's an unaccountable fine young gentleman; 
but that don't go to prove as he ever saw this young Bligh, does it, Mr. 
Smith ?" 

" You're as sharp as your own needles, ma'am, and upon my word 
I admire your quick capacity greatly ; but I expect I can answer you 
not that bad either, Mrs. Shepherd. Didn't I explain to you but now 
how this Bligh, against whom we've got such black suspicions, was 
hand and glove with the German foreigners as are held to be anti- 
slavery folks? — Well, then, now I'll come round to the right point, as 
I always do, I expect, Mrs. Shepherd, in the way of logic and argu- 
ment. My young friend Whitlaw lives — or at least his father does, 
with nothing but a zig-zag to part him and the Germans ; and I know 
well enough that they're no strangers, if they're no friends, for I've 
heard young Whitlaw talk unaccountable of the German's daughter, 
who is the biggest beauty, by his account, in the whole Union. Come 
now, Mrs. Shepherd, don't you think it first-rate likely that things 
being so as I say, that young Whitlaw must know this Bligh gal by 
sight if she's of that breed we calculate she is ? — And if so, couldn't he 
verify her slick if we could give him a sight of her?" 

" That's jest like your 'cuteness, Mr. Smith, I must say ; and I'll 
make no objection to that young gentleman coming here, provided he 
don't stare at the gal over-much, which would be what I could not 
approbate on no account." 

"Oh, trust him for that, Mrs. Shepherd ; Whitlaw can behave him- 
self when there's a reason for it. Well, then, I'll step and look after 
him, shall I? — I know mostly where he's likely to be found, and I 
shan't be tang, you may depend upon it."^ 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

Close beside the house of Mrs. Shepherd ran one of those dirty 
little passages which are so numerous in the town of Natchez. This 
dark alley caught the eye of Caesar as he left the store where himself 
and his embrassy had been so roughly treated , and it came into his head 
that if he turned down it, he should assuredly come upon the kitchen- 
entrance to the mansion of the uncourteous sempstress. He reasoned 
farther still, and felt equally certain that not far from this kitchen- 
entrance he should infallibly encounter some household slave, who, 
with the natural kindness of the race for each other, would listen to his 
petition, and obtain for him a moment's sight of Lucy Bligh. 

The experiment answered to his wish. The little Dido, already 
gratefully attached to Lucy for the gentle kindness of the few words 
that daily passed between them, no sooner comprehended that Caesar 
was a person Miss Bligh would like to see, than she promised to let 
her know 7 he was there. Accordingly she carried into the "keeping 
room" some glasses of cold water ; a volunteer attention which pro- 
duced no remark, the females of that region being as constant in their 
demands for "a drink of water" as the superior sex for "a drink of 
whisky." 

The little girl set the waiter upon the table close beside the place 
where Lucy sat, and furtively but distinctly whispered in her ear as she 
did so the name of "Caesar Bush." 

Lucy started, but her companions did not remark it, and soon after 
little Dido had quitted the room she rose to follow her. 

" Where are you going, Miss Lucy Bligh?" was uttered in a voice 
of authority from the chair. " I am going only for a moment, ma'am," 
was the reply ; and as Lucy had never yet been found guilty of even 
appearing to wish for a moment's idleness, she was permitted to go. 
Dido stood ready on the outside of the door to receive her, and pressing 
a finger to her lip in token that silence was desirable, she stepped on 
before her to the door which led into the lane. 

There stood Caesar impatiently waiting, and wavering between hope 
and fear for the will and power of his little messenger to perform her 
promise. " God bless you, Miss Lucy !" he exclaimed eagerly the 
moment he saw her ; "if this isn't a glory to me!— I beg pardon for 
taking such a great liberty, Miss Lucy, but dear as I love the sight of 
you, I never would have asked such an unaccountable favour as your 
coming out here only for a message from Phebe, Miss Lucy/' 



264 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

It will readily be supposed that poor Lucy felt no such apology ne- 
cessary, but that she listened with the deepest interest to all he had to 
say; and Caesar, though she occasionally hinted that she must not 
prolong her stay, continued to pour out so many eloquent details of 
his happiness and his hopes, that the minutes flow faster than either of 
them was aware. 

It chanced that as Mr. Smith left the store of Mrs. Shepherd, he saw 
Whillaw at the distance of half a dozen paces from him. His business 
with him was explained in a moment ; and though our hero, to the 
best of his knowledge and belief, had never seen either Bligh or his 
sister in his life, he concealed the fact with his usual readiness, for the 
sake of " having a stare at Mrs. Shepherd's gals." They entered the 
store therefore together, when the lady welcomed the new arrival with 
great civility, and, fortunately for him, without making any inquiries 
as to the nature of the evidence which was to prove our poor Lucy to 
be the sister of " a man forbid." 

•' Here we are in no time, Mrs. Shepherd," said the facetious Mr. 
Smith, "and now, by your good will and pleasure, we'll be after having 
a peep at that young Miss as negro-boys are making such tender in- 
quiries for." 

" It isn't much in my way to show off my young ladies to gentlemen, 
that's a fact, Mr. Smith : however, there may be reasons, doubtless, 
for setting the best rules aside. I'd better go myself, I expect, to fetch 
her, that she mayn't be dashed by learning that there's such gay gen- 
tlemen in the store." 

Having thus spoken, the stiff Mrs. Shepherd rose to leave the store ; 
but it is probable that some misgiving, or some feeling of the necessity 
of an ever-watchful eye over the multitudinous articles which adorned 
it, caused her to check her steps ; and ringing her little bell, Miss 
Tomkins, the lady in waiting for the day, obeyed it, and was gravely 
desired by her chief to take her place. 

Mrs. Shepherd remained absent for some minutes, and at length 
returned, just as young Whitlaw, to the extreme amusement of Mr. 
Smith, had gone the unwarrantable length of trying a new cap on the 
beautifully-curled hair of Miss Tomkins. 

Had the presiding lady been at all in her usual state of mind, such a 
spectacle would unquestionably have produced some very serious 
consequences : but this was, happily for the young Miss Tomkins, very 
far from being the case. She entered with the air of one who had 
made an important discovery, and not even perceiving the offending 
cap, which was very dexterously replaced on its own proper block by 
the young lady, she mysteriously beckoned to the two gentlemen to 
follow her. 

They did so instantly, and without demanding any further explana- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 265 

lion than that it was her will they should do so. In less than no time, 
as Mr. Smith would have expressed it, they had passed through one 
dark and narrow passage into another which crossed it at right angles, 
and thence again through a kitchen and into a court, the door of which 
was open, and before it Lucy, in earnest but smiling conversation with 
the young negro who had so recently been turned with contumely from 
the presence of two of the persons, who now again seemed ready to 
launch the thunders of their indignation and contempt upon his head. 

Before, however, the approaching party became visible to those 
without, Mr. Smith laid a hand on each of his companions, and sud- 
denly drew them back. "This is capital !" he exclaimed ; " but don't 
let us spoil all by being in a hurry." 

The persons he led obediently yielded to his touch, and no more 
was said till the kitchen was repassed and they again found themselves 
in the dark passage behind it. 

11 It would be worth a hundred dollars," whispered Mr. Smith to 
his friend Mrs. Shepherd, "if we could but listen to them two a spell 
without being seen." 

1 ' Nothing more easy, Mr. Smith," replied the lady in the same tone. 
" Look at that bit of grating yonder; they are just exact outside that, 
if I an't mistaken." 

"Don'tspeak, Whitlaw, for your life," said Mr. Smith, gently ap- 
proaching the aperture; " but jest follow me and listen." 

The ears of the two gentlemen were in a moment laid against the 
grating pointed out to them, and the voice of Caesar was distinctly 
heard in an accent of uncontrollable delight. 

" On Sunday night then, Miss Lucy, jest exact at midnight, you'll 
be in the heart of the dear blessed forest, at the hollow bit, you know, 
jest behind the great knot of maples to the east of Fox's clearing. Arn't 
I a happy fellow now ?" 

" Indeed you are, Caesar," said the gentle voice of Lucy in reply ; 
"but are you quite sure my brother means to preach there next Sab- 
bath night?" 

"Ami sure, Miss Lucy ? Why, didn't he tell me so himself?" 

" That's well then," said Lucy: " and now go, dear Caesar, — I 
really must slay no longer. Tell my — " 

But at this moment the current of air through the bars caused Mr. 
Smith to sneeze violently. Lucy started away like a frightened bird 
in one direction, while the happy and triumphant Caesar ran off in 
another. The interruption, however, was of little consequence. The 
one pair had said enough, and the other heard enough for all their 
purposes. Lucy glided quickly back to her place at the work-table, 
while Mrs. Shepherd and the gentlemen returned to the store, where 



26G LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Miss Tomkins being dismissed, a very interesting consultation took 
place. 

' ' And what did you contrive to hear, gentlemen V said Mrs. Shep- 
herd eagerly. " I'm not that short neither, but I couldn't manage to 
catch a word." 

"It don't much matter, I take it, ma'am," said Mr. Smith; " I 
expect we've heard enough and to spare ; and since I was born, I 
never come near anything to pair it! Did you hear her downright call 
him her dear ? Did you hear, Whitlaw? If my hair don't stand an end, 
I'll be flogged !" 

"And the preaching too; did you hear the pretty appointment she 
made for her brother as well as for herself*?" rejoined Whitlaw. 
"And the girl's not ugly to look at neither. Wouldn't it be as well, 
ma'am, for us to have her in, and jest ask her a few questions ?" 

" I ask your pardon, Whitlaw, for slopping your frolic," said Mr. 
Smith ; "but that's not the way we must manage her. Why, what 
would that be, but jest so much putting her upon her guard ? And if 
we do but take care a little not to tangle our net, we shall bag 'em all 
and lose none." 

" You're right, sir, and I honour your wisdom," replied Whitlaw. 
"Faith! this is no moment to be looking in a girl's face to spy if 
she's pretty. This is a capital find, Mr. Smith, and I only wish Hogs- 
town wasn't that far away. If he was here, I'd wager that he'd 
contrive to have them confounded Steinmarks in it somehow or other, 
as in justice they ought to be ; for they are all of one kidney I pro- 
mise ye." 

" Then if Hogstown don't come, we'll manage it without him, Mr. 
Whitlaw. If they are that way minded, I don't question as one and 
all they'll be at the preaching ; and if so, what's to hinder us, as in 
course means to be there too, I expect, from pouncing upon 'em at 
once, and binding 'em hand and foot, as conspirators in a negro 
rebellion V 

" That sounds right and feasible enough, Mr. Smith ; but you've no 
guess what an old fox this German farmer is. I expect, sir, it wouldn't 
bd no bad scheme if you and I was to away to Mount Etna to talk to 
my father a spell about him. He knows the old chap better than I 
do, that's a fact ; and if Hogstown is right in his surmise about the 
precious brother of this nigger-fancying Miss, as to his being so hand 
and glove with the Germans I mean, where's the difficulty but that 
Mr. Whitlaw of Mount Etna must know it?" 

" I'll go with you wherever you please. It's duty and pleasure both 
to labour in this business. Is Mount Etna a long remove from Nat- 
chez, Mr. Whitlaw?" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 201 

" A matter of three or four miles, Mr. Smith. But I've got a 

horse, and so have you, I expect ; and the sooner we're about it the 
better, sir." 

" You may say that, Whitlaw, so let's be off. Good afternoon to 
you, Mrs. Shepherd : you shall have news how we prosper, depend 
upon me for that." ! 

" Thank you, sir, thank you ! God knows, I shall live in hot water 
till I hear justice is done on this abomination set; for never did my 
ears hear the like before. But how long am I to bear this horrid gal 
in my sight, gentlemen ? Do pray be speedy in taking her out of my 
house, for I'm sure I shall never feel safe as long as she remains in 
it. Who shall answer to me that she shan't let in half a score of her 
nigger friends and sweethearts, gentleman, and murder us all in 
our beds ?" 

" The business will soon be despatched, Mrs. Shepherd, depend 
upon it, and the gal will be safe enough out of your way. Hogstown 
will be back to-morrow or next day, I guess ; and if things take 
the turn I look for, it wouldn't do by no means to bring 'em to a 
conclusion without him : and as to sending the gal off at once, 'tis just 
giving 'em notice, and we're stumped outright. It will be a glorious 
day for Natchez I promise you, Mrs. Shepherd, if we can catch a fel- 
low preaching at midnight to the niggers. And I heard the words as 
plain as if they'd been spoke to me. So be patient a spell, my dear 
lady, and don't spoil a good hit for a trifle." 

"Mrs. Shepherd promised obedience, and the two gentlemen 
departed. 

'.' The happy Caesar, meanwhile, hardly felt the ground under him 
as he bounded away back again to his Phebe ; and there was so much 
fun, frolic, and glee in the manner in which he related his adventures, 
that the sage Phebe, as well as her two little sisters, laughed long and 
loud at his story. Nevertheless, he was half ready to cry himself as 
he described his bitter mortification on finding that " the old gray 
stick, the missis, " would not let him see Miss Lucy. But the triumph, 
the glory of obtaining all he wanted in spite of her, the " clever 
smartness" of the little Dido, and finally, the beautiful kindness of 
Miss Lucy herself, formed altogether a narrative that none of them 
could be tired of hearing. 

It was Peggy who at last broke up the merry meeting, by remind- 
ing Csesar that though his new people had been so unaccountable kind 
as to give him leave to come a-courting a spell, 'twould be very wrong 
to stay loo late upon it. " There's the flowers to be watered, I'll be 
answerable, if your new young lady loves 'em as well as our poor dear 
Miss Lucy ; and pretty sorry and mad she'll be in the morning, Caesar, 



268 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

lo find the blossoms all as dry as a squeezed cane, because you stopped 
to talk nonsense here." 

" Our Miss Lotle is never mad with anybody, mother, but she 
might be vexed mayhap ; and so good night, my wife, and good night 
all the rest of ye, and pray that the Sabbath may come round quick, 
Phebe. # ,God bless ye all ! Good night." 

The happy lover hurried away, and was rewarded by arriving in 
time to help his beautiful young mistress — not in her usual evening 
attendance, however, upon her favourite flowers, but in running a 
dozen ways at once, in order to collect the scattered property of Fritz, 
whom some commercial business of importance obliged to set off early 
on the following morning for Philadelphia. 

He had purposed remaining at Reichland at least a fortnight longer, 
and this sudden recall produced a chorus of lamentation from the 
whole family. It produced, however, something else also. Not- 
whislanding the general gossip of the neighbourhood on the subject, 
the young Baron Hochland had not, though as heartily in love as a 
man could be, yet ventured to ask Frederick Sleinmark and his Mary 
if they would give up, and yield to him for ever and for ever, the 
charge, the care, and the possession of the treasure they^valued most 
on earth. 

When the letter which has been heretofore mentioned arrived from 
^the Baron Sleinmark, announcing his widowed and childless slate, 
and asking his brother to return with his family to Germany, the hopes 
of Henrich and Lolte, and perhaps too of the gentle Mary herself, for 
their return lo Europe were greatly excited ; for they saw that the me- 
lancholy epistle had produced a deep impression upon the voluntary 
exile, and they believed that he would not have refused the request. 
But from the day that the letter arrived, the subject had never been 
alluded to by Frederick Sleinmark ; and gentle as was the rule he 
held over them, there was a deference felt, even in their gayest mo- 
ments, towards him which effectually banished the subject. 

It was this reserve, this uncertainly which the family still fancied 
hung upon the mind of Iheir father, that had kept the young lover 
from declaring his wishes and his hopes. Were the Sleinmark family 
to return to Germany, he felt that all difficulty would be removed, for 
then no separation would be needful ; but if it were finally decided 
that Ihey should remain, he dreaded to risk the hope on which he lived, 
by asking Lolte if she could consent to leave father, mother, brothers, 
for his sake, and for her native Germany. 

But the departure of Fritz brought on the crisis at once. The Herr 
Hochland had arrived wilh him as his intimate friend, and as a tolal 
stranger to the rest of the family, it therefore was quite natural he 
should depart wilh him. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 269 

No one could feel this more strongly than the young baron. When 
Fritz turned to him after perusing his letter, and said, " My furlough 
is ended, Sigismond ! I must depart to-morow !" the sensation he 
experienced was not altogether unlike that of being shot. He answered 
not a word, however, but immediately left the room, In a few mi- 
nutes afterwards he might have been seen rapidly approaching Frede- 
rick Steinmark, whom he had traced to a distant field, and addressing 
him with a degree of agitation that made the first words he uttered per- 
fectly unintelligible. 

He little guessed that while slammeringouthisproposal of marriage to 
the tranquil-seeming father of Lotte, the philosopher himself experienced 
an emotion hardly less powerful than his own. He little guessed that 
his own timid doubts and fears were the cause of the heavy disappoint- 
ment which had fallen upon the family, from the silence of its chief re- 
specting the hoped-for return to the land of their fathers. But so it was. 
Frederick Steinmark had not only submitted cheerfully to his exile — he 
had most truly gloried in it, as long as he believed that it afforded him the 
best means of providing for his family without hazarding their inde- 
pendence by placing them in any degree under the protection of a bro- 
ther whose affection for them was w r alched by so jealous an eye as that 
of his wife. But no sooner was this obstacle removed, than all the 
long-buried feelings, which in a mind less ably regulated would 
throughout the whole period of his exile have taken the tormenting 
form of useless regrets, rushed freshly and anew upon his heart; and 
not even Henrich, with all his young enthusiasm, could more ardently 
wish to turn back to the Fatherland than did his quiet father. But at 
the moment this summons arrived there were other thoughts, and very 
anxious ones, at work within the breast of Steinmark. 

No father that loved as he loved Lotte could be insensible to the im- 
pression which she had made on the heart of Sigismond Hochland, 
and still less perhaps of that which the young man had made on hers. 
Though it was not in his nature to play the spy, and though he saw no 
more than every member of the family might, and indeed must have 
seen, he could not but observe how very nearly deaf and blind each 
seemed to be to all things in which the other was not concerned. Yet 
still no declaration of love was made by the baron, no hint given that 
the only hope which made life dear to him was that Lotte Steinmark 
might become his w 7 ife. 

It was precisely at the period when the love between the two young 
hearts had become so evident that the least speculating in such matters 
must have expected " something would come of it," that the letter from 
the Baron Steinmark arrived ; and then it was that the wits of the father 
and the lover fell into a series of speculations which caused many hours 
of misery to themselves and others. 



270 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

No sooner were the hopes of the young Sleinmarks that this letter 
would induce their father to return to Germany made known to Sigis- 
mond, than he determined to wait only till this intention was made 
known, and then boldly ask the hand of Lotte in marriage ; while, on 
the other hand, Frederick Steinmark was painfully withheld from 
making the much-longed-for announcement to his family, from the 
fear lest the high-born and wealthy Baron Hochland might interpret 
this sudden compliance with a request, well known to have been often 
previously refused, to a wish of placing his slenderly-portioned daughter 
in a position more likely to obtain his alliance. 

Never was a mutual misunderstanding more complete, and never 
was an eclair cissement more welcome. — Not that it was made with 
equal frankness on both sides ; it was not necessary for the father of a 
pearl of such price as Lolte to confess that he had been anxiously 
waiting for the proposal now made for her, because the secret of her 
young heart had betrayed itself, and he had seen that all her earthly 
happiness depended upon it. This was not necessary, and it was not 
done. But quite enough of the real truth was made manifest on all 
sides to render the hours of that day among the happiest of their lives. 

And then burst forth all their long-hoarded thoughts of home. 
Those who had kept this strangely strong instinct hidden at the very 
bottom of their searts, now uttered hymns of thanksgiving and of joy. 
Mary, indeed, was not a German, but she was an European, and Ger- 
many was to her a most dear home. As for the pensive Henrich, his 
very nature seemed suddenly to have undergone a change ; he outdid 
Karl in noisy gaiety, and notwithstanding all the necessary business 
to be performed on that memorable day, he would permit no member 
of the family to take a share in it till they had once more assembled 
themselves round Sigismond while he again sang that familiar air which 
had caused so sad a revulsion of feeling among them in the strawberry- 
field. 

Poor Karl indeed turned almost with a sorrowing eye towards his 
prosperous mill. "Shall I stay and grind out some more dollars, 
father, before I turn gentleman again, and rejoin you all in our glo- 
rious Fatherland?" said he, half jestingly and half in earnest. 

" No, that shall you not, my son," replied Frederick: "we have borne 
the labour and heat of the day together, and together will we enjoy 
the rest that is offered to us. But what says Fritz ? He has not been 
a daily labourer, as we have— his prospect look almost too bright to 
leave without regret. What say you, Fritz ? — Home and alight purse? 
— or Philadelphia and a heavy one?" 

" I beg to preface my answer," replied the young merchant, " by 
declaring that I am as good a German as any of ye. Nevertheless, 
having swallowed up so much of your hardly-earned transatlantic 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 271 

wealth, dear father, in becoming what I now am, I will not, if the 
choice be left me, leave the country till I can bring with me the means 
of living independently out of it. If the affairs of Wilcox, Steinmark 
and Co. continue to prosper as well as they do at present, I may hope, 
unless some griping fit of avarice seizes on me, to come and turn my 
dollars into lhalers before many years are over. — But where's Lolt- 
chen? I must positively be off before sunrise to-morrow ; and if she 
does not make haste, I shall have nothing ready." 

But Lottchen was not just then to be found. In truth, she was at 
that identical moment walking very slowly, and with no symptoms of 
the hurry that the business of the hour called for, with young Sigis— 
mond at her side, beneath the shelter of a row of locust-trees at the 
farthest part of the garden. 

The happiness of Hermann upon the events of this day was perhaps 
not less profound, though less demonstrative, than that of the rest, 
His mind was like a clear lake that bears on its sympathetic bosom the 
colours of the objects that Nature has placed around it; and as these 
become bright or dim by the influence of the varying heavens, such 
were their strongly-marked effects on him. First among these kindred 
forms for ever reflected on his affectionate breast, was that of his father. 
The quiet boy, while learning from him, in common with the rest, 
such lore as an accomplished gentleman will almost inevitably commu- 
nicate to his children, whether chance has placed him in a palace or a 
hut, the quiet Hermann, though nowise deficient in all such studies as 
occupied Lotte and his brothers, had in addition a separate and a secret 
study of his own, — namely, the character of his loved and venerated 
father. The result of this was a degree of devoted attachment by no 
means common in any of the relations of life. But the boy had not 
blundered — Frederick Steinmark deserved it all. 

It was therefore the deep-seated, delicious satisfaction which beam- 
ed from his father's calm but expressive eye as he looked on the beloved 
beings he was at length allowed to make so very happy, that now 

found its answering perfection of contentment in Hermann's heart. 

* * * * 

Never certainly could their new "help" Caesar have found a more 
inconvenient day to ask for a holiday than the one he had chosen ; but 
they all seemed too busy to remember it. When, however, in con- 
sequence of the well-inspired remonstrance of Phebe, the active and 
intelligent lad once more appeared amongst them, his appearance was 
hailed by a very general and approving acclamation ; and " Caesar, run 
there," and "Caesar, come here," and "Csesar, do this," and "Caesar, 
do that," assailed him on all sides. 

But he proved himself good at need, and with a happy smile that 
displayed his white teeth from ear to ear, and less blundering activity 



272 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

than ever negro showed before, he literally contrived to do all their 
biddings without mistaking one. 

It was in obedience to one of these numerous behests, that he ran off 
with the swiftness of a stag to Whitiaw's multifarious store, to procure 
cord and canvass, and sundry other packing necessaries, for the final 
completion of Fritz's preparations; and just as he reached the door, 
young Whillaw and his friend Mr. Smith passed before it, on their way 
to meet their horses, which a negro was leading round from the stable. 
They both knew him in an instant, and stood silently watching him at 
the door of the store til! he had done his errand. A few words were 
then exchanged between them, the result of which was, that the negro 
was ordered to walk the horses about, while the two gentlemen paid 
a visit to our friend Clio. 



CHAPTER XLII. 

When Jonathan Jefferson arrived with his friend at Mount Etna about 
four hours before the moment our narrative has reached, he had the 
satisfaction of finding his stepmother exceedingly well dressed, and the 
best keeping room wearing an air of even more gentility and elegance 
than usual, as the lady had just enjoyed the satisfaction of showing off 
her house, herself, and her slaves to one of her relations, who had been 
kind enough to afford her an opportunity for this display by coming to 
dine with her. 

Luckily they were but just departed; so Mrs. Whillaw had not had 
time to order the " nigger gals" to take off their shoes and stockings and 
clean aprons, nor to lay aside her own magnificent cap with three full- 
blown roses in the front of it. 

Old Whitlaw was, as usual, at the Eagle, and the faithful Clio in the 
store; so the young man was upon the whole very well satisfied with 
the aspect which " Mr. Whitiaw's place at Mount Elna" presented to 
his friend. That this effect might not be injured by the ill-timed in- 
troduction of his labour-stained aunt, his usual salutation of " Where's 
AuntCli?" was changed for the much more civil address of — " Good 
evening, mother. This is my friend, Mr. Smith of Cottenlands, one 
of the finest plantations near Natchez after the colonel's; and a friend 
he is of his too, and much respected, so please to make him welcome." 
" To be sure I will, Jonathan; and I'm right-down glad to see him, 
I'm sure. 'Tis always a treat to us country ladies, Mr. Smith, when we 
are so happy as to get a visit from you town gentlemen. But you'll 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 27S 

take a drink, Jonathan, won't you, you and Mr. Smith too? I'm sure 
you must be dry enough riding such sultry weather as this." 

The offer was accepted, a »d a " drink" of the usual refreshing kind 
was set before them, consisting of three parts whisky and one water, 
cooled, however, with a very commendable lump of ice, and flavoured 
with sugar and a leaf or two of green mint : a mixture, by the way, 
which, when the spirituous part is less nauseous and about one-eighth 
in quantity, is far from disagreeable under a Louisianian sun. 

While stretching their limbs in various graceful attitudes under the 
shade of Mrs. Whitlaw's portico, and sipping their mint julap as sedu- 
lously as if their only motive in coming into the country was to enjoy 
themselves, they began to question her respecting the family at Reich- 
land, and particularly as to any knowledge she might have of a certain 
Mr. Bligh, who was " remarkable intimate with urn." 

Now the truth was, that Mrs. Whitlaw had never seen Mr. Bligh, or 
even remembered to have heard his name before : but there are some 
people who never hear a question asked in a tone that seems to indicate 
myslery and mischief, without choosing to appear acquainted with the 
matter; and of such was Mrs. Whitlaw. " Bligh!" she repeated; 
" oh, to be sure, I know him well enough." 

11 You do, ma'am?" said Mr. Smith eagerly : that's well. Then you 
know, of course, that he's on the saintly lay? You never happened to 
hear him preach yourself, did you, Mrs. Whitlaw?" 

"lam not that sure, Mr. Smith," replied the lady, who began to 
feel puzzled how to answer; " but the fact is, that he being a friend of 
the Reichland people, he can't fail to be altogether dispisablein my eyes, 
for there's nothing about 'em from end to end but what I hate and 
detest." 

A great many very pithy questions were then asked, and a great 
many unmeaning answers given ; but Whitlaw contrived that one fact 
at least should be established in the mind of his friend, — namely, that 
slavery was an abomination in the eyes of the Steinmarks, and that 
they were never known to omit an opportunity of showing grace and 
favour to a negro whenever they could find an occasion to do so. 

This was something, and Jonathan Jefferson felt that if he could set 
his father on the scent, it might lead to more. But to do this to ad- 
vantage, he felt that it would be advisable to see him alone, as a few 
hints might be necessary which would not greatly add to the value of 
the testimony he sought, even in the eyes of his liberal and well-judging 
friend Mr. Smith. He therefore privately decided to ride over alone 
on the following morning for this purpose; and meanwhile he took an 
opportunity, while his respected stepmother was expatiating on the sins 
and detestabilities of the Steinmark race, to slip out in order to have a 
word with Aunt Cii. From her he knew that he should at any rate 

18 



'274 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

learn the truth in a moment, and be able to ascertain, without more ado, 
•whether the people called Bligh were known to the Steinmarks or 
not. 

Some moments were inevitably wasted by the unconquerable raptures 
of the good Clio at the unexpected sight of her nephew ; and coffee 
was weighed amiss, and soap was cut awry, while she gazed with de- 
light at his ever-improving elegance, now seen for the first time since 
his return from New Orleans. 

But if the spirit of Jonathan Jefferson was chafed by this very un- 
necessary delay, he found some atonement for it in the succinct brevity 
which which she answered his questions, as soon as he could find an 
opportunity to put them. 

" Do you know a man called Bligh, Aunt Cli?" 

" Yes, Jonathan dear; he hss been twice in the store wilh the family 
from Reichland, and three times he has bought coffee here for himself." 

"Has he got a sister?" 

" I don't know, Jonathan." 

" Is he a parson?" 

11 I expect not, for he wears a white jacket." 

1 ' Is he a saint, Aunt Cli?" 

" I don't know, I'm sure, Jonathan." 

" Then you know nothing about him ?" 

" No more than I have told you, my darling." 

" Well, Aunt Cli, good b'ye ; but mind, don't show yourself, for 
I've got a first-rate planter with me, and he mustn't hear such a figure 
as you Jonathaning and dearing me up. Good-b'ye — keep close — 
we shall be off in a jiffy." 

With this tender farewell he departed, and was followed by a shower 
of blessings from the humble-minded Clio, who had neither pride nor 
vanity excepting for him, and who would willingly at any time have 
crept into the coalhole, and remained there patiently till he bade her 
come out again, could she have spared him a feeling of mortification 
thereby, and that without ever thinking it possible that the moral na- 
ture of the request might be defective. 

The sight of Cresar however, the very identical slave who had made 
the appointment, drove even from the mind of the vain and cautious 
Whillaw every lesser thought ; and no sooner had he left the store, 
than he led Smith into it, saying with abrupt and forgetful eagerness, 
" Aunt Cli, whose slave is that?" 

" He's owned by Master Steinmark, Jona — ; I mean, he's Mr. 
Steinmark's slave, sir." 

" Mr. Steinmark's slave? Why, what's in the wind now? I thought 
the Steinmarks were known to have said over and over that they never 
would own a slave?" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 275 

" And that's true too, Jona — sir. This young man is the first and 
the only one they ever bought." 

The two gentlemen exchanged very meaning glances. 

" They bought him, did they?" pursued Whitlaw. " Who did 
they buy him of?" 

" 'Tis a curious kind thing of 'em, if all's true as is said about it," 
answered the innocent Clio, who would not for anything — no, not even 
to please her darling Jonathan, have uttered a word that could have 
been injurious to the Steinmarks : "curious kind, and just like 'em; 
for you see he was a runaway slave from New Orlines, and 'twas just 
for that very reason and no other that Master Steinmark bought him, — 
at least that's what the old German shepherd said here one day, and I 
expect it's no more than the truth; and a curious sight of money he 
gave for him too ; and now, you see, he's safe and out of all mischief, 
and may snap his fingers, mayn't he, at his old master?" 

"That's coming to the point anyhow, I expect — eh, Smith?' was 
Whitlaw's remark as he left the store. 

"Plain as a pike-staff," answered his friend. "If we can't do 
something here, 'twill be queer. I say, Whitlaw, who's that old 
woman in the store? What was it you called her?" 

"The old woman? Oh, that's my father's old My eye ! uow I 

think of it, Smith, what a glorious job it will be if we can make this 
story out to be true, and catch the whole batch of 'em preaching and 
praying, with the niggers beside, w r on't it?" 

"I expect it will, Mr. Whitlaw. But above all things we must get 
hold of Hogstown: he's the man to make the most of it. God grant 
he may be back from New Orlines to-morrow, or we shall be stumpt 
after all." 

"Not we, Mr. Smith, not we. I wish Hogstown back, that's a 
fact, 'cause he's first-rate at giving the white people a notion of what 
they ought to be doing; but it don't follow that we'll be stumpt, even 
if the Sabbath comes round without him. Why the thing lies in a 
nut-shell, and I guess that without Lynch-law at all we could carry 
it through, Mr. Smith, and bring these devilish Germans to the 
grindstone every nose of 'em, and that by regular State-law and 
nothing else." 

Mr. Smith replied to this by laying his forefinger on his lip, aud 
nodding his head with much occult meaning. 

"You be careful, my young friend, if you please, how you get 
upon that lay. It's all very well to speak of State-law when needs 
must, and to make a talkification in Congress about our respect for 
the laws, and our reverence for the laws, and our obedience to the 
constitution, and all that. This is all very well in the right place, and 
that's at Washington. Not that they seem over particular about the 

IS* 



275 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

matter there either ; but at any rale, trust me that out here, the nearer 
we can get to having the law and the gospel too in our own hands, 
the better it will be for us ; and, by G — d! we'll have a try at it both 
ways at this Sabbath meeting, and that without troubling the Stale 
about it, my good friend." 

To this spirited view of the case our hero willingly acceded, de- 
claring himself ready and willing to go through fire and water in such 
a cause and with such a leader. At a short distance from the town 
they separated ; Whitlaw directing his horse to Paradise Plantation, 
where, as he well knew, he should find a well-pleased auditor in the 
colonel of all he had to communicate ; and Mr. Smith repairing to the 
residence of Hogstown, to ascertain if possible the lime of his return, 
being anxious to go in company with this intelligent and able assistant 
to reconnoitre the spot described by Caesar as the place of meeting for 
his interview with the fair Lucy, and, what was much more import- 
ant, the place of rendezvous for her brother's preaching. 

Whitlaw, as usual, found his patron disposed to welcome his return 
very cordially. The rich man, indeed, appeared every day to enjoy 
his own company less, and a severe attack of dyspepsia having confined 
him for some days to his own room, the presence of his confidential 
clerk was more than ever agreeable. 

It happened, moreover, that Ihe colonel also had news to com- 
municate ; a circumstance which to one of his disposition is a real 
blessing if they are fortunate enough to find some one meet to receive 
it, but which becomes a positive torment if they do not. 

Before Whitlaw had time to announce the very important intelli- 
gence that they had all but got a preacher in their clutches, Colonel 
Dart had set off at full speed to recount his own adventure. 

" That d d witch has been here again, Whitlaw. Upon my 

soul I don't know what to make of her. It would be nothing but 
downright stupid obstinacy to doubt that she knows a cursed deal 
more than she has any business to know, that's a fact: and if Ihe 
devil does not help her to it, 'twould be hard to say who did." 

Whitlaw, who remembered Ihe meeting at New Orleans, was by no 
means disposed lo dispute this opinion, and replied, " True enough, 
sir, true enough. Has she been telling you anything new?" 

"Telling me? Confound her! she docs nothing but puzzle and 
bother me with all her tellings : and yet there's no man in his senses, 
I expect, who would choose to send her off without minding her." 

I 1 To be sure, sir, there's no doubt of it. But what has she been 
saying ?" said Whitlaw eagerly, suspecting that she had probably been 
giving some mysterious hints of Ihe approaching discovery. 

" I have never yet had time since you came back from Orlines," re- 
plied the colonel, " to tell you of the queer game she played here 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 277 

about a runaway slave from Oglevie's — and I must tell that another 
time now, for I've got — " 

14 Indeed !" exclaimed Whillaw suddenly ; " she knew of that too, 
did she? — and she brought word of it here ? — It's positive clear, colo- 
nel, that woman must not be treated with disrespect — she knows all, 
and the devil puts her in our interest, that's a fact." 

" Well, I expect so, Whitlaw. But now jest listen. She came to 
me to-day, and told me in so many words that I must accept an offer 
I should receive to-morrow morning from a farmer, a German, I 
think, a few miles off, for the purchase of a gal of mine ; — by the way, 
Whitlaw, that very gal that you told me that comical flogging story 
about. Well, she says that this old German will offer to buy her, 
and that, let him offer what he will, I must accept it and let her go." 

"Possible !" cried Whitlaw with much solemnity. "Whether 'tis 
a devil or an angel as sets her to work, sir, I won't pretend to say, — 
but the old witch is as true as steel to us ; there's no misdoubting her 
— I see the whole plot as clear as the sun at noonday. Juno, you see, 
has contrived to get that rebel runaway into her clutches, as sure as 
ever cat did a mouse ; and now, cunning old soul ! she's for setting 
that Phebe, who no more dare disobey her than disobey you, as a 
watch and a spy over him and his master too. Egad ! she is a witch, 
colonel, and a capital one too; and I'd not be the man to cross her, I 
promise you." 

The conversation then proceeded in the most explicit and satisfac- 
tory manner possible ; and it became clearly manifest to the compre- 
hension of both gentlemen that they were in a fair way, by help of 
their inestimable ally Juno, of speedily putting a slop, in their own 
neighbourhood at least, to all the danger which threatened them from 
the wicked attempts of ill-disposed persons to "christianize and in- 
struct the niggers." 



CHAPTER XLIH. 

Mrs. Shepherd was a better plotter in principle than in practice. 
No one could be more true, heart and soul, to a cause than was this 
lady to that which now occupied the attention of the American slave- 
holders. Though not greatly addicted to indifference respecting her 
gains, she would willingly have sacrificed many solid dollars, could 
she thereby have ensured the peaceable continuance of slavery in her 
native State for ever. But in critical circumstances, such as now oc- 
cupied the active supporters of the system, it is not enough to ensure 



278 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

success in the ticklish measures undertaken, that all those made ac- 
quainted with them should be faithful and true in their principles — 
they must also be cautious and prudent in their practice ; and this 
Mrs. Shepherd was not. 

Hardly had the two men left her store, than she yielded to the 
temptation that assailed her, and again summoning Miss Tomkins to 
fill her presiding chair there, walked into the room where all her 
"young ladies" were assembled, for the express purpose of bringing 
Lucy to shame and confusion by making known her horrible delin- 
quency to her companions. 

The poor girl was as usual assiduously at work, but with a counte- 
nance more cheerful than usual. Her own situation, indeed, was in 
nowise altered or mended ; and notwithstanding the good-will she had 
won from nearly all her companions, and the real affection of the 
pretty creature whose room she shared, this was miserable and cheer- 
less enough. But the happy prospects of Caesar and Phebe delighted 
her, and a gentle smile was on her lip when the grim Mrs. Shepherd 
entered and thus addressed her : — 

"So, miss! — you're grinning, are ye? — Tisyou, you unnatural 
abomination of a nigger-fancier, that I'm speaking to — you Bligh girl, 
you ! — See to her audacious impudence ! — if she doesn't look up right 
in my face! Keep off, ladies, — don't touch her, whatever you do. 
I am bound by my duty to those whose goodness takes care of us, not 
to turn the monster out of my house till all the hellish plot is ripe — or 
maybe she'd be giving notice, and some of those might escape as, 
thank God ! are marked for destruction. — But though I'll take care 
to keep her close enough, there's no need, ladies, that you should any 
of you come within the touch of her." 

The astonished Lucy through the whole of this speech continued 
to keep her eyes fixed on the speaker, as did also every other person in 
the room. Having paused for a moment to witness and watch the 
effect she had produced, Mrs. Shepherd lowered her voice, already 
hoarse with her vehemence, and addressing the lookers-on in a whin- 
ing tone, she said — 

"Don't you pity me, ladies? — Such a house as mine ! — when did 
ever shame enter it before? And now will you credit and believe that 
two gentlemen of the first standing in Natchez have this day heard 
with their own ears a love-meeting made and settled between that 
horrid creature there, Lucy Bligh, and a beastly black nigger-man !" 

"It is an infamous falsehood!" said Lucy, rising, and looking 
round her with eyes that seemed to appeal to her young companions 
for support under this insulting accusation ; "a most wicked false- 
hood. Are there any here who believe it?" 

(t I'am sure I don't, Miss Bligh," said three young voices in chorus. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 279 

"You don't?" cried Mrs. Shepherd in a rage. "Then come with 
me, ladies, all three of you, and I'll jest show you how I come by my 
knowledge of it, — and then say you don't believe it !" 

Every soul in the room followed her out of it except poor Lucy, who 
now totally overpowered by the situation in which she found herself, 
dropped again upon her chair and wept bitterly. While the curious 
females were engaged in a careful and edifying examination of the 
very grating through the bars of which the horrible conversation had 
been overheard, the unhappy girl had time to recollect all the circum- 
stances that had really occurred, and the very dangerous words which 
had passed between herself and Caesar — not, indeed, of the nature so 
vilely suspected, but sufficient, as she well knew, to expose her 
brother, as well as his helpless congregation, to great peril. She was 
rapidly arranging in her head the readiest means of giving Edward 
and the poor negroes notice that they must again suspend their meet- 
ing, when the female troop re-entered the room, the two seniors of the 
party fully convinced of her guilt, two or three others suspecting or 
fearing it, and those — even those whose hearts acquitted her, too 
much shocked and terrified by the nature of the accusation, and the 
strength of the evidence, to again venture upon raising their voices in 
her favour. 

"And now, ladies," resumed the triumphant Mrs. Shepherd, — 
" now that you all see that I have said no more than I am able to 
prove, have the kindness to tell me, some of you, how the crelur con- 
trived to get out of your sight and into that lane to meet the nasty 
nigger fellow?" 

" I can answer that," said her sallow deputy. " Don't you re- 
member, ladies, how she got up, and walked out of the room in her 
impudent independent way, as much as to say, *■ I care for nobody?' 
And don't you remember into the bargain, that it was the minute after 
that little toad Dido come in, nobody knows for why, for I'm positive 
sure nobody called her. And don't you all remember how she poked 
the tray with the water in amongst the work just close to Miss Bligh? 
And how much will you lay, any of you, that the varment didn't speak 
to her, and tell her that her blackamoor sweetheart was out there?" • 

" That's the way, w 7 as it?" cried Mrs. Shepherd in a perfect ecstasy 
of rage; " that's the way she has been corrupting my property, and 
bringing slave rebellion and insurrection into my very house ! Call in 
the black viper, one of you : I'll see whether w T e can't tame her be- 
fore worse comes of it." 

The little trembling Dido was immediately brought before this dread 
tribunal , and the scene that followed cannot be dwelt upon. Thestrength 
of more than one active and practised female arm was exhausted in la- 



280 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

cerating the back and limbs of the unfortunate child whose ill-timed 
good-nature had produced such terrible results. Lucy, who was as 
little used to such a spectacle as if she had been born and bred in that 
happy land where none for an instant can respire the breath of life and 
remain a slave,— poor Lucy, in the agony of her soul at this spectacle, 
not only attempted to interpose an inefTectual effort to prevent it, but 
uttered words of such indignant reprobation at the executions, as cer- 
tainly convinced all present that she was in truth an enemy in that 
camp where slavery was held to be the sovereign good and sovereign 
safety. 

" You hear her, ladies ! Now do you all believe it? And is this 
a cretur to be left at liberty among slaves and niggers? Be very 
sure that we shouldn't be long safe in our beds if this wasn't looked to. 
I'll send express for Mr. Smith and Mr. Hogstovvn outright, and they'll 
say better than we can what ought to be done with her. She's joined 
in a rebellion with 'em against the State, that's clear at any rate ; and 
I expect she'll have to go to prison without delay." 

It was no terror for herself that drove the blood from the cheeks and 
lips of Lucy, and left her pale as marble. She had never moved any 
one to rebellion ; no such act could be proved against her, and she 
feared it not. But if her brother were indeed discovered in the act of 
secretly addressing Louisianian slaves in the dead of night, his life 
might be the sacrifice, and no safety found in the pure and holy object 
that he had in view. She remained immovable while these thoughts 
pressed upon her, and answered not a word to the taunts, revilings, 
and threats with which she was assailed. 

Meanwhile the messenger despatched for Messieurs Smith and Hogs- 
town returned with the intelligence that the former " was rode into 
the country," and the latter not yet returned from New Orleans. This 
message was delivered in full assembly, and Lucy was inexpressibly 
relieved : she flattered herself that before the following morning she 
might certainly escape from any power Mrs. Shepherd could employ 
to retain her, before she was authorised to use violence by those who 
had power to do so. But herein she greatly miscalculated that lady's 
respect for the laws : no sooner was she informed that there would be 
difficulty in conveying Lucy to any other prison, than she determined 
her own house should serve all the purposes of one in the interval; 
and accordingly she ordered Lucy to mount the stairs before her. 

Resistance was totally out of the question ; the deputy, at a look from 
her chief, marched up to her side, and seizing her arm with no gentle 
touch, prepared to enforce the command. 

Lucy shrunk from her touch, for she had been second only to Mrs. 
Shepherd in the violence used upon poor little Dido ; and obeying the 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 281 

peremptory command, she walked up stairs to the room she usually 
occupied, and having entered it, heard the door locked and double- 
locked upon her. 

Her situation was indeed terrible, being made up of the most serious 
and well-grounded fears for the future, with inability the most la- 
mentably complete of using the present interval to avert the threatened 
danger. She prayed fervently, and in doing so ceased to weep; but 
the hours wore heavily away, and though the light of day had not yet 
disappeared, she fancied the time already past when it should have 
done so. At length a step approached, and the door was opened. A 
portion of bread and water was placed beside her ; while the poor girl 
who had hitherto shared her bed was permitted, though with many 
injunctions to make haste, to remove her night-linen and other ne- 
cessaries from the chamber. While engaged in collecting these, Lucy 
observed her go to a drawer that was appropriated wholly to her own 
use, and which she knew that Miss Talbot never opened ; but now she 
did so, with rather more than necessary noise, as if hastily seeking 
some article that she had mislaid-— and as she closed it again, a little 
short cough accompanied the action. It was enough : Lucy felt that 
she was not quite forsaken ; and having waited till the door was again 
locked upon her, she hastened to the drawer, and, as she expected, 
found a scrap of written paper in it. 

The rapidly fading light enabled her with some difficulty to read the 
following words, written in pencil : 

" Dearest Miss Bligh, — 
" You do not think that I believe a word of their wicked slander. I love you 
dearly, and trust 1 shall this night prove it. I am to be put to sleep in a small bed 
in Mrs. Shepherd's room. She keeps the key of your door in her bag, and it will 
be odd if I can't watch where she puts it when she goes to bed: so expect to 
hear your door open when it is quite dark. 1 shall not come in, for fear we should 
be heard ; but I hope we shall meet again somewhere. 

" Your affectionate, E. Talbot." 

With this ray of hope to cheer her, Lucy lay down upon the bed, 
certainly not to sleep, but for the purpose of keeping herself as tranquil 
and as much at rest as possible, in order to be the better prepared for 
the long walk through the forest which she hoped to perform before the 
morning. 

She waited long in vain. One by one she heard the different doors 
close, till by degrees the whole house was hushed in the most profound 
stillness: but still her friend came not, and sick despair had almost 
taken the place of hope, when a noise so slight as left her almost in 
doubt whether it were not fancy, called her attention to the door. 

For a moment she waited without moving, that if indeed it were 



282 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Miss Talbot's gentle hand which had produced the sound, she might 
have time to retreat again to her bed before she risked the danger of 
betraying her, in case she were herself discovered. When at length, 
however, she laid her trembling hand upon the lock, it yielded to her 
touch. 

" Soft as a spirit's were her feet,'' 

as she stole down the lofty staircase. Believing her easiest exit would 
be by the kitchen, she directed her steps that way, and after a few 
puzzling and very tormenting difficulties, she at length found herself 
the same dark lane in which Csesar had paid her his unfortunate visit 
the day before. Her first steps were taken very hastily, though in 
perfect ignorance as to the way they led ; but then finding herself in 
the open market-place, she became conscious that she was really at 
liberty, and stood still for a moment to decide in what direction she 
should proceed. 

The first nervous terror of her doubtful escape being over, she 
became conscious for the first time of two circumstances which were 
both, though in very diilerent degrees, embarrassing. The first and 
most important was, that she doubted extremely of her power to find 
the footpath across the forest which led to her brother's dwelling. 
The minor evil was, that she had neither bonnet nor shawl to shelter 
her. The room she shared with Miss Talbot was so small, that these 
articles were deposited in a closet near the head of the stairs, the door 
of which she dared not open . 

Had Lucy felt strength enough to have walked the long circuit that 
the waggon brought her, her road would have been easily found, for 
the track was plain and the stars were bright; but it was too far, and 
she felt certain that did she attempt it, the morning would find her 
exhausted and still far from home. To discover the footpath was there- 
fore her only alternative, and she set about it with a light foot and a 
fervent spirit. 

At first setting out, her progress was plain, easy, and hopeful ; for so 
many dwellings hung upon the skirts of the town, that in no direction 
was there any difficulty of finding a well-trod path. With such slight 
knowledge of the stars as she had to help her, she took the direction 
of her home ; and for a time she fancied she remembered the aspect 
of different objects which she had passed when Edward had come to 
the outskirts of the town on a Sunday morning, to meet, and conduct 
her through the wood . But there is nothing so deceptive and beguiling 
as a forest-path ; it will puzzle and delude even during the brightest 
light of day, and, spile of the stars, might have puzzled Jean-Jacques 
himself, if their light came as faintly as it now did to poor Lucy, 
through the malted umbrage of trees that became thicker at every step 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON wMTLAVY. 283 

she took: yet still she walked actively onward, nor paused to think 
how many miles she had already trod, nor failed from time to time, as 
some smaU opening gave her power, to look up to the heavens and 
ascertain thaUshe certainly was proceeding in the direction of Fox's 
clearing. 

It was not till the light of morning hegan to steal palely and furtively 
athwart the forest, and the early twittering of the hirds gave a less 
doubtful notice that the night was past, that our poor Lucy permitted 
herself to believe that she might in good earnest have lost her way, 
and that so completely as to leave her little hope of recovering it. 

She had forgotten, in the hurry and agitation of that nervous walk, 
that the same creek which made it necessary for all waggons to go 
twelves miles round in order to pass it, was fordable to foot-passengers 
only at one other spot, where by descending a very sharp declivity, a 
point was reached, across which a tolerably active spring sufficed to 
bear the traveller in safety, and very nearly dry-shod : but this spot she 
now perceived she had missed, and again and again, after innumerable 
windings, the impassable creek yawned before her, as if to mock her 
idle efforts to master it. 

Completely wearied and discouraged, she seated herself on the 
ground, both for the sake of rest and meditation. What should she 
do next? Not even the tangled thicket above her head could longer 
conceal the fact that it was broad sultry day, and she dreaded such a 
total failure of strength as might prevent her making any effectual 
effort to extricate herself before the return of night. She feared to sleep, 
and yet felt that this was in truth the only means she had of restoring 
the strength she so much wanted ; so, after weighing deliberately the 
various perils that threatened her, — herdecision, aided perhaps at last 
by the heavy weight that seemed to rest upon her eyelids, she cau- 
tiously selected the foot of a tree where no treacherous thicket might 
afford ambush to a snake, and tying a handkerchief over her head to 
guard ''the portals of her ears," she commended herself to Heaven, 
and lying down, with her own fair arm for her pillow, was in a few 
moments fast asleep. 



CHAPTER XLiV. 

When Mrs. Shepherd in her tender mercy ordered bread and water 
to be again served to the poor prisoner for her breakfast, the species of 
emotion which she experienced at hearing that she had taken wing 
may be easily enough imagined. She raved, she stormed, she ac- 



284 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

cased everybody, and finally sent to summon Mr. Smith for the pur- 
pose of confessing lo him that she was gone, together with the very 
mortifying addition that she neither knew how nor where. • 

Mr. Smith was in a tremendous passion. His favourite Hogstown 
had arrived during the night, and they had already enjoyed, over a 
breakfast of beefsteaks and onions, a foretaste of the happiness of get- 
ting up a little exhibition of Lynch-law of their own. To be balked 
in this by the stupid carelessness of a parcel of idiot women, — for it 
was thus he disrespectfully expressed himself, — was more than his 
temper could bear. 

Happily for Mrs. Shepherd, her sensible fore-woman uttered a sug- 
gestion which occasioned an immediate revulsion of feeling in the 
heaving breast of Mr. Smith. 

"Don't you think, sir, that it is unpossible she can have got far, and 
she such a delicate young thing, and that never have been used to them 
woods at all ? " 

The admirable judgment displayed by this observation acted in- 
stantly like oil upon troubled water. 

" You're no that stupid, miss, at any rate," said he abruptly ; and 
without waiting for any rejoinder to his compliment, he darted out of 
the house like an arrow. 

Though greatly vexed to learn that the bird was flown, Mr. Hogs- 
town acknowledged that it would be pretty considerable likely that 
they should fall in with the nigger-loving miss, seeing that few that 
did'nt know the ground well would be likely to find the crossing of 
Long-knee-deep creek. It was therefore immediately agreed between 
them, that they should set out on foot, and calling in their way at 
Paradise Plantation, get young Whillaw to join them; after which, 
if they all started off in different paths, 'twould be queer if one or 
other of them did not come up with her, and she such a slip of a girl 
too. 

On this reasoning they acted ; and the consequence was, that Whit- 
law reached the very spot where Lucy had fallen asleep about five 
minutes after she had again opened her fair eyes to the light. Had his 
joy at discovering her been less intemperate, it is probable that she 
would have been his to have and to hold, at least as a prisoner ; 
but he uttered such a shout of savage triumph, that like a startled 
fawn she sprung away, and favoured by some thick underwood among 
which she threaded her way, he lost sight of her directly. 

Uttering an oath, yet nevertheless but little discouraged by a flight 
that he knew could not carry her far, he followed the direction she 
had taken: but it was some time, owing to the nature of the ground 
before he caught sight of her again; and when he did, she was stand- 
ing motionless, and appeared to be earnestly gazing at some object that 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 285 

had arrested her steps, but what trees and bushes still prevented him 
from seeing. 

His rapidly-advancing step made her turn her head, when once 
more darting forward, she was again hid from his view. His distance, 
however, from the place where she had been standing was very 
trifling — a few active bounds mastered it; and looking in the same 
direction through the trees that she had done, he saw her, equally 
to his surprise and mortification, surrounded by a party of armed 
Indians. 

When Lucy had reached the spot from whence this wild group was 
visible, she started with very natural terror and dismay, for no figures 
could in truth be better calculated to inspire such feelings. Four long 
lank figures of the Choctaw tribe, well-armed, but with hardly more 
clothing than the wild animals of which they were in pursuit, were 
suddenly visible to her at the distance only of a few yards. 

Their occupation was certainly that of peace, for they were cooking 
some of the game of which they had made prey ; but there is an un- 
speakable look of savage wildness about this race, which, however 
little there may be now to dread from them, might well create a shud- 
der, when encountered by a lonely female in the depths of a dark and 
gloomy forest. 

Her first impulse was to retreat, and so silently as to remain un- 
noticed by them ; a matter of no great difficulty at a moment when one 
great instinct of their nature was about to be satisfied by the meal they 
were preparing, and when another — the aptness to perceive and guard 
against approaching danger, once equally strong within them — was 
blunted, and in a great degree extinguished for ever, not so much by 
the careless boldness that assured security gives to civilization, as from 
the reckless indifference produced by having nothing more to lose. 

Lucy stepped back ; and if her garments moved the leaves around 
her, no Choctaw head was turned to see whence the movement came; 
but at the very moment that she joyfully perceived this to be the case, 
her own ear, .more quick to catch alarm, made her conscious that 
Whitlaw was close upon her. 

The terrible words, " I have got you, have I ! " which he had 
shouted with noisy triumph when he first caught sight of her, left no 
doubt that he was in pursuit of her, and that if she fell into his hands, 
all hope of giving her brother timely warning would be lost. This 
recollection, and something too in the general appearance of the civi- 
lized man which terrified her even more than the painted and scarred 
features of the Indians, stopped short her retreat, and after a moment 
of trembling uncertainty, during which her heart beat as if it would 
have burst through her bosom, she rushed suddenly forward and threw 



28o LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

herself on her knees before one of the Choctaws, who being idly seated 
apart, she rightly judged to be their chief. 

It was certainly no feeling of terror that startled the four savages as 
she thus suddenly appeared among them ; or if it were, it must have 
been somewhat of a superstitious nature, for it really seemed as if her 
light and beautiful figure had risen from the earth beneath their feet, 
so totally without preparation of any kind was the apparition. For a 
moment, they looked at her and at each other as if awe-struck ; but in 
the next, feelings of kindness and good-will evidently took place of all 
others, and with that look and manner which is of all the languages of 
the earth the most intelligible to woman, they made her feel that she 
was safe. 

Comforted and reassured beyond her most sanguine hopes, yet still 
trembling, and with cheeks and lips as pale as death, she rose from 
her knees and endeavoured to make the men comprehend that she had 
fled from some enemy in the wood. She was perfectly understood, 
and four rifles of prodigious length were instantly handled in a very 
masterly and warlike style. 

If Whitlaw remained long enough at the post he had reached to 
witness this manoeuvre, it is probable that he thought he had seen 
enough of Lucy for the present ; for no farther sight or sound reached 
her to renew her alarm on his account. 

The Choctaw chief, who read poor Lucy's languid and exhausted 
condition in her face as ably as if he had been the most skilful physi- 
cian of New Orleans, pointed to the seat he had left, and made her a 
sign to take it : this she did thankfully, and with a smile that so 
plainly told him so, that no words could have expressed it better. He 
then drew from his belt a flask of that magic liquid which, far more 
than arts or arms either, had led to the subjugation of his own and all 
the other tribes that once strode over that gigantic continent as its law- 
ful and its only masters; — in plain English, he offered Lucy a flask of 
rum. 

Her first movement was to shake her head and refuse it ; but the 
sinking faintness within, which led her to fear that even now, with her 
four savage but kindly guards around her, she might still be incapable 
of reaching her home before the light again failed, taught her belter 
wisdom, and she put the rude bottle to her pretty mouth with the 
courageous resolution of swallowing what might be sufficient to revive 
her strength. But the experiment did not answer well, for the mouth- 
ful she look very nearly choked her : and neither their respect nor their 
pity could prevent a general laugh among her lawny friends at the 
effect it produced. 

No animal, however, is so inventive as a man when his ingenuity 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 28i 

is set to work to aid the suffering and weakness of a woman. One of 
the party who was engaged in supplying wood to the fire over which 
some half-dozen rabbits hung roasting, started off among the trees, and 
returning in a few moments, addressed his companions, who each 
produced a flask, among which he disposed of the remaining contents 
of his own, and setting off again as he had done before, he speedily 
brought it back filled with such brackish water as he could get from 
some swampy hollow, and then contrived to blend it in such judicious 
proportion with the rum of another flask, that Lucy, albeit unused 
to such a beverage even in this tempered state, now swallowed a 
draught of it, greatly to the advantage of her powers both of mind and 
body. 

Meanwhile the dangling rabbits reeked in savoury wreaths of very 
appetising smoke, and the hospitable savages again proved their powers 
of invention by twisting the bright leaves of a tulip-tree together, till 
such a pretty pattern of a basket-plate was formed as Mr. Wedgwood 
might have purchased at high cost. And then was a rabbit carved 
most manfully by three strokes of a hatchet, and the choicest morsel 
laid upon the plate of leaves, and an instrument, something between a 
knife and a dagger, put into Lucy's little hand, and the plate most 
reverently laid upon her knee, as she sat upon the species of throne 
allotted her ; and in short, the timid, weary, harassed Lucy Bligh 
made a repast, surrounded by her four Choctaws, which many a pam- 
pered epicure, waiting for a lagging appetite that will not come, might 
have envied. 

When the meal was ended, and the poor girl with renovated spirits 
had smiled her thanks to each, she began to labour with all her skill of 
signs and gestures to make them understand that there was still another 
service they must render her, even the guarding her through the forest 
till she had found the friend she sought. 

This was, however, no easy task. She succeeded perfectly in mak- 
ing them comprehend that she still feared some one who had pursued 
her, and the long rifles were again handled, and each one pressed 
closer round her, as if to tell her that they would " buckler her 
against a million ;" but when she strove to explain to them the way she 
wished to go, it was quite evident that they were all at fault. 

The place at which she had found them was an old clearing that 
might have been formerly cultivated, but which appeared to have 
been long forsaken ; no remnant of a fence, nor any other symptom of 
its being near a human residence, remained, and it was hopeless for 
her to attempt leading them with her in any direction, as it was quite 
as likely that she should go farther from Fox's clearing as that she 
should approach it. 

At length, however, she succeeded in making them understand that 



•288 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

she wanted to pass the creek. One of its numerous windings brought 
it to a point which she had reached hut a short distance from the place 
where she had slept; and remembering this, she walked towards it, 
beckoning them to follow her. They did so instantly ; and having 
reached the sleep side of the ravine, it was not difficult to make them 
comprehend that it was her wish to find herself on the other side of it. 
She flattered herself that the well-known familiarity of these people 
with every inch of forest-ground would enable them to lead her to the 
pass by which the footway from Natchez to many a forest dwelling led. 
But here she was disappointed. No sooner did the gentle savages dis- 
cover that she desired to cross the creek, than they set to work to make 
the doing so easy for her, but never appeared to think that there could 
be the least difficulty in achieving this exactly at the spot where they 
stood. They rapidly wove together a hurdle of branches, and having 
made signs to her to lay herself upon it, which she fearlessly obeyed, 
two of them caught her up, and she was down one side, across the 
water, and up the other steep and rugged bank, almost before she was 
aware of what they were about. This certainly was a great and im- 
portant assistance, as it was now just possible that she might set off in 
the right direction : and if she did so, there would be no longer the 
fear, or rather, the certainty of meeting this ever-yawning chasm to 
stop her progress. 

But it was at least equally possible that she might set off wrong ; and 
as the right was but one, and the wrong many, the probabilities were 
sadly against her. She now pronounced the names of various farms 
which were all in or near the direction in which she wished to go ; — 
but, alas! her friends could onlyshake their heads and pronounce some 
very unintelligible words in return. 

What to do she knew not. To remain thus strangely though safely 
accompanied, was impossible ; and rather than do so without making 
some effort to extricate herself from her embarrassing position, she 
determined to walk straight on and take her chance as to whither the 
doing so might lead her. She wished, and indeed hoped, that, the 
friendly Chocktaws would accompany her, for the dread of Whitlaw, 
and of being again made a prisoner, haunted her ; but she knew not 
how to make known either her purpose or her wishes, and therefore 
set off without attempting it, trusting wholly to their sense of her 
helpless and unprotected situation as an incitement to their continuing 
near her. 

Nor was she deceived in thus trusting. The apparent chief of the 
party placed himself at a few paces before, one of the others kept at a 
similar distance behind, and the other two flanked her right and left, 
taking care however, never to approach her so nearly as to lessen the 
appearance of respect with which they seemed desirous to treat her. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 289 

In this way they proceeded, whether right or wrong Lucy had si ill 
no means of judging, for about two miles, when the report of a ride 
from among the trees, and very near them, caused the whole party to 
halt. A scout was immediately despatched in the direction from 
whence the noise proceeded, and the rest stilly and silently awaited his 
return. In less than ten minutes the man returned, followed by a 
hunter — or, to use the phrase of the country, a gunner — armed cap- 
a-pie for the chase. He was a fair young man, with bright curly locks, 
and light blue eyes, whose gay and good-humoured expression might 
have encouraged the most timid female to address him, even in circum- 
stances of less desperate need than those which beset Lucy. 

The young stranger exchanged a few words with the Indians in their 
own tongue, and then advancing cap in hand towards Lucy, begged 
to know if he could in any way assist her. 

As briefly as possible she explained her situation, statin? that she had 
lost her way in the forest, and encountered the party of Indians, who 
had shown the kindest inclination to befriend, but ineffectually as far 
as concerned her finding the road, for they could not understand her 
questions. 

"Do you, sir," she continued, colouring and trembling with anxiety 
for his answer, — " do you chance to know a little farm called Fox's 
clearing?" 

" Fox's clearing?" said the young man eagerly; "that is the resi- 
dence of Mr. Bligh — is it not? I cannot be mistaken, your resem- 
blance to him is most striking, — surely, you must be his sister"?" 

"Is it possible that you know my brother, sir?" replied the delighted 
Lucy. "Edward Bligh is indeed my brother. Are we near his 
home? — How very fortunate I am !" 

" I am sure, Miss Bligh, I shall consider myself so, if I can be in 
any way useful to you," said Karl Steinmark; for it was his happy 
countenance, beaming with good-humour and benevolence, that the 
poor wanderer had had the extreme good fortune to encounler in this 
desolate region. "Tell me," he added, "what I can do to serve 
you?" 

"You seem to speak these good men's language," replied Lucy. 
"Will you express to them, as strongly as you can, my sense of their 
great kindness : they have fed and guarded me as if I were a child of 
their own nation." 

"Poor people!" said Karl mournfully; "their nature might have 
been better dealt with." 

"And will you, sir, give this money?" she said r presenting her little 
purse: " I wish I had more to offer them." 

Karl performed his part as ambassador and interpreter very grace- 
fully, and, excepting in the matter of the purse, was most graciously 

19 



294 LIFE A.ND ADVENTURES OF 

received and listened to; but respecting this the tawny heroes were 
inflexible, uttering, as with one voice, their refusal of payment. 

" Have you anything about you, the most trifling thing in the world, 
by way of token and remembrance," said Karl, "that would delight 
them? — but you must not press payment upon them." 

Lucy's hand was instantly in her pocket; and she drew thence a 
small silver knife, and a pair of very delicate scissars. 

"Ay! these will delight them," said Karl. 

"But here are but two things," said Lucy mournfully; "and I 
could not bear to leave two forgotten." 

" I dare not offer to help you out," said Karl, smiling, " with any 
of my own pocket furniture, for I am quite sure that those who got 
my things would look with quite as jealous eyes upon those who got 
yours as if they were left unremembered entirely." 

"Though they will not lake money," said Lucy, rejoiced at the 
bright idea, " they will not perhaps refuse the purse, especially if you 
lei! them that it was made by myself." 

"Excellent!" cried Karl, " the very best thing possible: and sup- 
pose I make up the number with my powder-horn?" 

Lucy again put her hand in her pocket, and drew thence all that re- 
mained in it; namely, her cambric handkerchief — and — her thimble. 

No sooner had Karl thrown his eyes upon this last article, than he 
uttered an exclamation of delight. " My powder-horn ! — a dozen pow- 
der-horns would not redeem this! — Now then, Miss Bligh, if you will 
make your offerings, I will attend you with the best explanation I 
can." 

Lucy did so ; and the grace and feeling she contrived to throw into 
the simple act of presenting to each the little token by which they were 
to remember her, almost caused her interpreter to forget the expla- 
nation he had promised to give. B;it an appealing look from her re- 
called him to his duty ; and he performed it so well, that each and all 
of her honoured guard retired to follow their way as much gratified 
and as happy as she wished to make them. 

The affair being thus satisfactorily adjusted, and Karl and the 
lady left alone, he renewed his inquiry of how he could be useful to 
her. 

" Can you tell me the way to Fox's clearing?" she said, " or tell 
me even in what direction it lies ? " 

" I doubt if I could even do that," he replied, " for I have never 
been there ; but if you will permit me, Miss Bligh, to lead you to my 
mother and sister, I can assure you a most cordial welcome, and much 
nearer rest and shelter than Fox's clearing. In fact, we are not 
mere than a mile from Reichland, and your brother's home lies be- 
yond it." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 291 

" Indeed I will go wilh you very thankfully/' said Lucy, " for 
I doubt if I could walk many miles farlher. — Your name is Steinmark, 
then, sir?" she added : " I (bought it could be no oilier." 

However fatiguing the mile appeared to Lucy, it certainly seemed 
no very long walk to Karl. The gentleness, intelligence, and refine- 
ment which he in common with all his family had remarked in Ed- 
ward, with that sort of liking with which qualities highly prized and 
rarely met are requited, were all found, as he thought, more remark- 
ably still in his sister, and without that settled sadness on the brow, 
which to a gay spirit like that of Karl was inexpressibly painful, often 
checking the kindness it longed to offer, from the fear of bringing an^ 
noyance instead of relief. 

It was with something like a feeling of triumph from having found 
what would be so welcome to all, that Karl led his pale and exhausted 
companion into the common sitting-room at Keichland : but poor 
Lucy felt great embarrassment from becoming the object for so many 
eyes, kind though they were, to fix upon ; and the more so, from the 
complicated length of narrative which she thought would be necessary 
to explain why it was that she had been found so strangely. 

She knew not how fully her name was enough, if not to explain 
her present situation, at least to render all explanation unnecessary ; 
she knew not that her dear Edward, though often silent and sad on 
other subjects, had warmed into eloquence and animation when she 
had become the subject; and still less did she imagine that the favour- 
able impression thus made had been strengthened by the almost rap- 
turous encomiums of Caesar, who had managed since his residence 
among them to assure the family, one and all, that the whole wide 
world did not contain any one person so filled wilh virtues and good 
gifts of all sorts as his quondam mistress Miss Lucy Bligh. 

Unconscious of all this, Lucy shrunk from the affectionate 'eyes that 
were fixed upon her ; and having vainly endeavoured to tell the gen- 
tle Mary, who hung over her wilh maternal kindness, why it was that, 
wilh uncovered head and thus wholly unprotected, she with un- 
womanly boldness attempted to traverse the forest alone, — having at- 
tempted this, and failed from weakness of many kinds, she stopped 
short, and covering her face wilh her hands, burst into tears. 

It was Lotle who now came forward, and gently drawing her mo- 
ther aside, knelt down in the place where she had stood before Lucy. 
The young girl sympathised wilh the young girl's feelings ; she under- 
stood her shyness — she felt for her fatigue, for her embarrassment, 
even for her dishabille, and whispered to her in the voice of confidence 
and affection, 

" Come upstairs, dear Lucy 1— come to my room, dear friend 1 — 
I know you will be better there." 

\9* 



292 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Lucy knew it too, and pressing the hand that had taken hers, she 
rose, and accompanied her new friend as she led the way to a quiet, 
comfortable little room upstairs. 

This was exactly the situation and the consolation that was most 
likely to restore her; and here it was that, without restraint or em- 
barrassment of any kind, she related the whole of the circumstances 
which had befallen her, from Caesar's unlucky visit, to the fortunate 
arrival of Karl Sleinmark at the spot where he found her surrounded 
by her body of Chocklaw guards. 

Lolte listened with the most earnest attention, and without saying a 
single word to interrupt her ; but when the narrative was ended, she 
manifested the interest she took in it, by her anxiety immediately to 
consult her father as to what steps should be taken to secure the safety 
of Mr. Bligh. 

Undress yourself, Lucy, and get into bed ; I am sure your limbs 
must feel stiff and aching after such a night. You must have some 
coffee, and lie quite still for an hour or two ; by that time your bro- 
ther will be here, and then you shall come down and assist at the 
general consultation." 

So saying, she gave her an affectionate kiss and left her. 

The tale was listened to by all the party with indignation and 
anxiety. The state of the public mind through all the Southern states 
respecting the slave population, and the general acknowledgement of 
the necessity that the strongest measures should be resorted to in order 
to ensure the continued subjection of these unhappy people, was well 
known to Mr. Sleinmark, who was watching the struggle between the 
two parlies with the deepest interest : he saw at once that the violent 
detention of Lucy was for the purpose of preventing such a nolice of 
the discovery of the prayer-meeting being conveyed to her brother as 
would prevent its taking place. The immediate danger was avoided 
by the noble exertions of Lucy ; but it was so evident that young 
Bligh must now be a marked man, that Frederick Sleinmark instantly 
determined to hasten his own departure for Europe, that he might 
convey both Edward and his sister from the country that their virtues 
had rendered so dangerous to them. 

His first care was to summon Edward; and Hermann, who knew 
his abode from having on some former occasion accompanied him 
home, was despatched to Fox's clearing for this purpose ; while a very 
joyful degree of activity was communicated to the rest of the family, 
by the information that all hands must set to work in order to prepare 
for departure by the earliest ship that should leave the port of New 
Orleans for Europe. 

The sale of his highly-cultivated and very valuable properly at 
Reichland he had already nearly settled with Colonel Dart, on whom. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 208 

with his usual good-nature, he had called the day beforein order to ne- 
gotiate the purchase of Phebe; and on mentioning to him, as one way of 
advertising the property for sale, that it was his intention to dispose of 
it previously to his setting off for Germany, that very wealthy gentleman 
declared himself ready to become the purchaser at such a valuation as 
three respectable persons competent tojudge the value should put upon it. 

Nothing, in fact, could be more agreeable to Colonel Dart than the 
opportunity of making this purchase. He had a much larger capital 
than he knew how to employ; and, moreover, was very sincerely re- 
joiced to find that a proprietor who cultivated his land by free labour 
was about to take himself away. 

The happy Phebe, it was already settled, should come to them on 
the morrow, and, together with her intended husband, accompany 
them to Europe. The Baron Hochland declared himself perfectly 
ready to start at the same time, though complaining a little at the stern 
decision of the whole family, that Lotte should be bestowed on him in 
the presence of her uncle, and on the soil that gave her birth. In a 
word, all preliminaries for departure had already been so nearly ar- 
ranged, that it was evident a little extra activity might enable them to 
proceed to New Orleans in the course of a week. 

Never was the satisfaction of a whole household more general and 
complete than that of Frederick Steinmark upon this occasion. From 
Mary, who now prepared to change her usual mode of doing every- 
thing so quietly that her agency could sometimes be scarcely detected, 
into the bustling rapidity that seemed absolutely necessary to keep her 
au courant dujour, down to the German labourers who had accom- 
panied them out, and now were right glad to accompany them back 
again, all was joy and thanksgiving : and affectionate as was the in- 
terest they had felt for Edward before they were fully aware of the 
perils which beset him, that interest now seemed increased tenfold, both 
by the perils themselves, and by that delightful feeling which in the 
heart of the good is more attaching perhaps than even the gratitude for 
benefils received — the consciousness of having bestowed them. 

" We shall save him, poor fellow ! and his pretty sister too, by this 
forced march," exclaimed the father of the family with the most ani- 
mated satisfaction ; " and we shall moreover, carry away two other 
human beings, whom we found groaning in the chains of slavery, with 
no other fetters upon them than those of wedlock : and if we leave 
one dear son behind us to make spoil of a little barbaric gold or Yankee 
silver, we have found anolher losupply his place — have we not Lotte? 
Then will not the return of the exile to the land of his fathers be trium- 
phant?" 

He was answered by a chorus, and one which rung most sweetly on 



294 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

his ear, for no single voice was out of tune as it pealed round the wide 
chamber, — " It will ! — It will 1" 

" I wish Edward Bligh were here," exclaimed Henrich : " I long 
to hear what he will say to it." 



CHAPTER XLV. 

It was la(e in the evening when at length Hermann Steinmark re- 
turned, bringing Edward with him. He had found him very unwell, 
feverish, and out of spirits; and the kind-hearted lad's project of not 
telling him (hat his sister was at Reichland, in order to give him an 
agreeable surprise, was of necessity abandoned, as the invitation to ac- 
company him was most decidedly though gratefully declined, and all 
olher reasons tried in vain to overcome his reluctance to leaving 
home, till at last the baffled envoy was driven to explain, 

" Why, Mr. Bligh ! — your sister Lucy is at Reichland." 

" Lucy ! — my sister Lucy at Reichland ! What has happened to 
her, Mr. Hermann ? Has she been ill trealed ? — Is she ill f 

" She has a very long and interesting story to tell you, Mr. Bligh," 
replied Hermann, " and she is in a great hurry that you should come 
and hear it — so make haste and let us set off. And there's abundance 
of other news for you to hear too, and you will be interested in it all, 
Mr. Bligh. It is so long since we have seen you, that I don't believe 
you know that my father has decided upon returning home directly. 
But come, I will tell you all the news as we walk along. — I don't be- 
lieve that you have ever been told yet that Lottchen is really going to 
be married to Sigismond." 

They were in the act of passing through the door as this was said : 
Hermann was a step before the unfortunate young man who thus re- 
ceived the confirmation of all he dreaded to hear. 

No answer was returned ; and young Steinmark walked on for a 
few paces, supposing that Edward was following ; but receiving no 
"reply to a question which he addressed to him, he turned round, and 
to his surprise found himself alone. 

He retraced his steps, and again entered the little sitting-room. 
Edward was not there however ; and supposing he was gone to com- 
municate some wish or order to the olher inhabitants of the dwelling, 
Hermann sat down to await his return. In about half an hour his 
step was heard descending the ladder-stair from the rooms above, and 
the next moment he appeared. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 295 

Young Slcinmark was most painfully shocked and surprised by his 
appearance. His face was ulleiiy colourless, his eyes had an expres- 
sion of unsettled restlessness, and his whole manner was nervous and 
agitated Jo a degree, that it was embarrassing to watch, but impossible 
to overlook. 

" You are ill, Mr. Bligh !" said Hermann, rising and taking his 
hand ; " lam sure you are feverish, and it is belter you should not go 
out to-night ; — let me tell your sister that you will come to her to- 
morrow." 

11 No, Hermann, no," replied Edward in an accent of decided re- 
solution ; " if my orphan-sister were only to be reached by passing 
through a furnace seven times healed, still I would go to her. Excuse 
this delay — it was not to be avoided : but let us set off now — we shall 
soon be there." 

They did set off accordingly, but it was in vain that Hermann en- 
deavoured to beguile the way by conversation. He talked of Caesar, of 
Phebe, of the Old World and of the New, but all fell unheeded upon 
the dull ear of Edward ; and if any thing could have brought sorrow 
to the happy heart of the young German, this silent melancholy walk 
must have done it. But after being quite convinced that it was not 
wilhoul great reluctance that his companion uttered even the monosyl- 
lables " yes" and "no," he desisted from the attempt, and consoled 
himself as well as he could for his absence from the busy happiness at 
home by remembering how gratefully his father always seemed to 
acknowledge every attention paid by himself and his brothers to the 
melancholy Edward. 

When at length they reached the happy parlour atReichland, they 
found Lucy seated in the midst of the family circle looking almost as 
happy as any of them. Frederick Steinmark was himself seated next 
her on one side, and Lolte on the other ; and long before Edward ar- 
rived they had made her acquainted with the plan already formed for 
screening herself and her brother from dangers and difficulties of all 
sorts, by adopting them into the bosom of their family and their 
country. " My little girl will be running away from her mother very 
soon," said Frederick; " and you, Lucy, are exactly the being lo take 
her place : Edward shall become a minister of Lulher's own church, 
and I will even give up our beloved Caesar and his little wife Phebe to 
wait upon him." 

The pale and wretched countenance of Edward most sadly checked 
the current of such gay talk as this, and immediately all that one short 
moment before had made her so very happy was as completely for- 
gotten by Lucy as if it had never been spoken. 

Lotte rose and resigned her place lo Edward, which he took without 
seeming to know who had left it : but as he listened to the narrative of 



296 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

his sister, and perceived by all she said, as well as by the remarks of 
Frederick Steinmark on it, that his position was become one of posi- 
tive and immediate danger, his haggard countenance gradually re- 
sumed ils usual expression, and even a smile revisited his lip as he 
sought to throw ridicule upon the terror his sister expressed concerning 
him. 

" Your devolion to the needle, Lucy," said he, " seems to have 
lowered your courage most lamentably. You are a sort of heroine, 
you know, and stand pledged to endure evil report and good report 
without shrinking from the cause to which we have devoted our- 
selves. " 

" As io the good or evil report to be obtained from the slave-holders 
of Natchez, Edward, I suspect that our newly-found Lucy cares for it 
quiie as little as the rest of us : but lor the matter of martyrdom, it is 
another thing, and " 

"You are quite right, quite right," said Edward, suddenly changing 
his tone; " Lucy must have nothing to do with that — nor need she 
with such friends as you are." 

" And with a hrolher to boot," observed Steinmark, "who cer- 
tainly thinks vastly more of her than of himself. Bui, if you please, 
my dear friend, we will dispense with the honours of martyrdom 
altogether : we have settled all your plans for you, Edward, and this 
distinction makes no part of them. Lucy is to be the adopted 
daughter of my wife, and to take the place of Lotto when Sigismond 
runs away with her, as he threatens to do; and you, Edward are 
to—-" 

" Pray for you with my latest breath!" exclaimed Bligh, clasping 
his hands fervently, and looking as if he would willingly fall at the 
feet of his benefactor. — " Will you indeed/' he continued, "let this 
poor orphan be one of you ?" 

He took her trembling hand as he spoke and placed it in that of 
Steinmark. 

" It is all settled, Bligh," replied Frederick, more affected than he 
chose to appear by the solemnity of Edward's words and manner : 
" but not your sister only — you also must he one of us. You have 
done all that you could do to benefit the unhappy victims of the sinful 
tyranny — you will have saved the valued servants of your father from 
the misery which threatened them, and you have sown the good seed 
of faith and hope in the minds of many whom we have neither of us 
the power to redeem, but who may bless your precepts and your name 
even when they see you no more." 

" f trust in God that they may!" replied Edward : and then, as if 
to turn the conversation from himself, he added, "When, my dear 
sir, do you think of sailing for Europe ? ,? 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 297 

"Before you could well believe such a difficult undertaking pos- 
sible," replied Sleinmark. " Our preparations are already in great 
forwardness. My business with Colonel Dart respecting the sale of 
my farm and all that is on it will be compleled to-morrow; and Ihen, 
in truth, nothing remains but to lock our trunks and take our passage 
to New Orleans." 

" Do you think you shall be gone before the next Sabbath?" said 
Edward eagerly. 

" I hardly know ; but I think my wife told me, that to prepare the 
linen for the voyage would keep us till Tuesday or Wednesday. Is it 
not so, Mary ?" 

Mary answered in the affirmative; adding, however, that if it were 
safer that Mr. Bligh should retreat before the day for which the forest 
meeting had been fixed, she thought his doing so might very easily be 
arranged, by leaving two of the servants to complete the work, and 
follow 7 them a day or two later to New Orleans." 

V Oh no!" said Edward, again assuming a cheerful aspect; " you 
quite mistake me. These people, if they purposed, as you suppose, 
to interrupt the meeting of the Sabbath night, will now be deterred 
from doing so by the escape of Lucy. They will think, of course, 
that we shall fear to hold the meeting." 

" That is possible, certainly," replied Steinmark; " but it will not 
do to reckon on this too surely. In short, my dear fellow, I am 
clearly of opinion that the sooner you put yourself out of the way of 
them the better." 

" I hope you think so too, Mr. Bligh?" said Lotte kindly. 
Excepting at the moment of general salutation as he entered, these 
were the first words she had addressed to him, and their effect was 
very painful. He rose from his chair, and seemed preparing to ap- 
proach her, and then sat down again without returning any answer; 
and then he rose again, saying, " Good night ! — good night !" but had 
so evidently lost his self-possession, that Lucy, quite terrified, rose 
too, and, laying her hand on his arm, looked up into his face with so 
much uneasiness depicted on her own, that it restored his recollection 
in a moment; and with quiet but fond affection he kissed her cheek, 
saying, 

"Will you indeed, kind friends, shelter this poor girl here for to- 
night? She does not look fit to set off upon another night-walk 
through the forest." 

"You will never get your sister to Fox's clearing again, Mr. Bligh," 
said Mary, " do not think of it. During the short lime that remains 
before we all set off together for the Old World, Lucy must be Lolte's 
bed-fellow. 

" May the God of the Old World and IUq New bless von now and 



21)8 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

forever!" exclaimed Edward fervently: "my sister is no longer a 
houseless wanderer, a frail and friendless thing, that one blow might 
crush to the dust at once. You may know sorrow, my poor Lucy," 
he added, again kissing her, " but you can never know such hopeless 
desolation more, as we have passed through together: and when sor- 
row comes, you must bear it, Lucy, as a Christian woman should ; 
but it will pass like a cloud of the spring, and your day of innocent life 
will be happy. Farewell ! — farewell to all ! I have not been very 
well of late, and ought not to be a late wanderer myself. Good 
night!" 

"Do not go home to-night, Mr. Bligh," said Mary, in the cordial 
tone of genuine hospitality. ■* I am indeed sure that you are not well, 
and Lucy and the rest of us must nurse you. Fritz is gone, you 
know, and his bed shall be got ready for you immediately." 

But there was something in this proposal which seemed to endanger 
anew the composure he had regained. 

% " Oh, no, no!" he cried, very hastily making his way towards the 
door. " You know not — it is quite impossible!" And even before 
Lucy could slop him for a last " good night!" he was gone. 

Notwithstanding the deep and impressive gratitude which he had 
expressed for Lucy's amended prospects, and his evident satisfaction 
at everything which had been proposed concerning her, Edward's 
manner had left a painful impression on them all. 

Lucy, as of late she had always done when Fdward manifested 
emotions that she could not understand, believed that his mind had 
been overwrought, and that his fine intellect was shaken. This ter- 
rible idea checked all her new-sprung joy, and almost made her guilty 
in her own eyes, that, with such a terror before her, she could find 
pleasure or even consolation in anything. Frederick feared that he 
had still some loo exalted and enthusiastic ideas upon the sacrifices he 
was called upon to make for the poor slaves who had been wont, to 
listen to him, and the rest of the family sighed to think that the charm- 
ing Lucy should have the happy cheerfulness of her disposition 
weighed upon by the melancholy temperament of her brother; but 
no one guessed that poor Edward carried an arrow in his heart that 
poisoned his life-blood, and made all the other misfortunes which had 
fallen upon him seem utterly harmless by the comparison. 

M The mirth of the good meeting," however, was quite " displaced;" 
and after one or two vain efforts on the part of Karl and Sigismond to 
restore it, the circle broke up, and sought in sleep a respite from their 
busy joy, and an oblivion of the sorrow lhat had crossed it. 

On the following day much important business was finally arranged. 
Phebe was transferred from the possession of Colonel Dart to lhat of 
Frederick Steinmark; and the estate of Reichland, with all the build- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON VVH1TLAW. 299 

ings, stock, farming implements, and household furniture upon it, was, 
within the same hour, conveyed from Frederick Steinmark to Colonel 
Dart. 

The pretty wonder and delight of Phebe at learning, as she speedily 
did from Caesar, that she was in a few days to be carried away to a 
land where negroes were never slaves, and that her darling Miss Lucy 
was to go there too, renewed through the whole house that spirit of 
light-hearted merriment which had reigned amongst them from the 
hour their departure for Fatherland had been announced. 

Even Lucy, though conscious of a heavy sorrow that seemed ever 
to hang suspended over her, could not resist the influence of Phebe's 
raptures, and the infectious happiness seized upon her spirits, and 
made her laugh with a gaiety long a stranger to her feelings. 

While all the junior part of the family were wasting (heir time by 
laughing at the sallies of Phebe, instead of soberly attending to the 
duties of packing, a sudden slop was put to their mirth by the en- 
trance of Clio, who, in a stale of great agitation, and out of brealh 
from the speed she had made, desired to speak to Ihem "all at once," 
'cause the store was waiting for her, and sister Whillaw would be mad. 

M Sit down, Clio, at any rate," said her constant friend Lolle, sett- 
ing a chair for her. ■■ It will not lake you at all more lime to speak 
silting than standing; and here we are all, quite ready to listen to 
you." 

M All indeed !" said Clio, looking round her. " Why, what a sight 
of you there is altogether ! And a black nigger gal loo amongst you ! 
So you're come to about the having niggers after all? — But that's 
not altogether what I come for : 'tis to warn you, dear good people, 

that you are My Jonathan's been out to me this day, to give me 

warning of the most horriblesl thing as ever my ears heard tell, and 
says 'lis you all as is in the biggest danger ; for if you don't shut your 
doors against 'em, you'll have your house pulled down by the vir- 
tuous and enraged populace of Natchez, he says : and so, as in duty 
bound for all your kindness, I'm just run across to lell you." 

Clio stopped for want of brealh, and with her apron removed the 
abundant moisture which the rapidity of her course and the heat of 
the noon-day sun had produced. But great as her efforts had been, 
and eager as she certainly was to give them some very important in- 
fomation, there was not one of those who listened to her that had 
been able to comprehend the meaning of a single word she had ut- 
tered. 

" What is it we have to fear, my good Clio ?" said Frederick Stein- 
mark, who had followed her into the room from the wish of saying 
farewell to the only one of his neighbours whom he greatly respected. 
" What is it that is going to happen to us 1 — We have lived here very 



300 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 

safely for many years, and it will be strange indeed if at the moment 
of departure we are to be visited by the virtuous mob of Natchez. Do 
pray explain yourself, Clio." 

" Ah ! that's jest what I don't dare to do if I could, Master Stein- 
mark," replied Clio. " But, thank the Lord, I don't know how; and 
so I can do no mischief to the darling what trusted me. But this I 
will tell you for all your long kindness, that if you lets a certain 
dreadful bad woman darken your doors, you'll have mischief more 
than I can say, or dare." 

" A dreadful bad woman, Clio !" exclaimed Karl, laughing : "what 
dreadful bad woman are we likely to have ?" 

" Why, the horrid unnatural monster, Master Karl, has been having 
a nigger sweetheart. Arn't that horrid ? — And my Jonathan says that 
she's the sister of one that's unaccountable great friends with you all 
here, and one that I know summat of too. The Lord keep me from 
seeing any of 'em again !— but their name's Bligh." 

On hearing this, Karl rose from his seat, and approached Lucy as if 
to comfort and sustain her under this dreadful attack ; but to his great 
surprise she appeared not to feel any emotion beyond astonishment, 
and perhaps a little curiosity ; for in truth it never occurred to her that 
such wild, unmeaning nonsense could really threaten danger. 

" My name is Bligh," said Lucy very innocently, " and I have a 
brother who has been often here ; so I have no doubt that I am the 
person vou have heard mentioned. Besides, it is exactly the same 
thing that was said to me by some woman at Natchez, who saw me 
speaking to a negro that had brought a message to me ; but I do assure 
you he was not my sweetheart." 

Clio had started from the chair on which she was seated the in- 
stant Lucy proclaimed her name, and going up to Lotle, besought her 
in a whisper not to be beguiled into Idling thai bad woman bide with 
her; adding in a lower whisper still, " I dare not, Lolte, tell all ! — my 
Jonathan would kill me. But all they want is to know that you and 
they hangs all together ; and if they do find it out, Lotle, — why then 
we shall have Lynch-law at Reichland as sure as here you be. But 
never let my Jonathan know that I told you even so much as that." 

Without wailing for a reply, Clio wrung her hand and disap- 
peared. 

Lotte immediately repeated to her father this threat of a visitation 
of Lynch-law ; a species of outrage which they had (.ften heard of, 
but wilhoul ever imagining that it could reach them, the quiet regu- 
larity of their manner of living being such as might well set all such 
attacks at defiance. And so were the young men inclined to treat it 
now, declaring that it was really to be regretted that their speedy 
departure was likely to prevent their seeing this singular administration 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 301 

of justice with their own eyes. But Frederick, though probably not 
much more alarmed than themselves, treated the threat more seriously. 
"I assure you, boys," he said, "I am well pleased at having so 
promptly settled my business with Colonel Dart. I suppose you know 
that this gentleman is already in possession of my house and lands — 
yea, even of my chairs and tables, and that we are now only here by 
his especial grace and favour ? But I really think it will be but prudent 
for us to depart with our friends as speedily as may be. My old shep- 
herd has often told me that Whitlaw the father is not kindly disposed 
towards me ; and now it seems that Whitlaw the son is ready to de- 
clare war likewise : and it certainly is by no means improbable that if 
there be a riotous movement at Natchez, the virtuous populace, as Clio 
calls them, may chance to turn their steps this way." 

" Do you really think so, father ?" said Lotte, looking very much 
frightened. " Then we must not mind the linen or the books or any- 
thing else, but get away as fast as possible." 

" With all respect for the courage of these young gentlemen," said 
Steinmark, "I confess myself very much of the same opinion. A 
mob is a tremendous animal in any country, and I am not inclined to 
believe that it is at all belter behaved here than elsewhere, — not to 
mention that they have unquestionably less reason to have the whole- 
some fear of the laws before their eyes than the mob of any other region 
on the face of the earth. Therefore, I do think, that as we have really 
nothing of any real importance to detain us, the wisest course will be 
to depart without wailing for the visit which these Lynch folks pro- 
mise us." 

" We are all ready enough to set off, father, give the word when 
you will," said Karl ; " but I confess that I heard nothing from poor 
good Clio that occasioned me any feeling of alarm, though part of it 
certainly made me very angry." 

" I think differently, Karl. Clio is desperately afraid of betraying 
the secrets of her nephew, and perhaps not very clear-headed on Ihe 
subject of the threatened inroad ; but I am quite sure she would not 
hazard the indignation of 'sister Whitlaw,' by running to warn us. as 
she called it, at this busy hour of the day, unless she knew there was 
some real cause of alarm. At any rate, we shall acquire no iaurels 
by remaining ; and therefore I decidedly vote for our adopting the safer 
part of valour on ihe present occasion. Besides, putting ourselves and 
Colonel Dart's house and furniture out of the question, I think our 
friends Edward and Lucy had much belter be on board a steam-boat 
going to New Orleans as part of my family, than remaining here with 
nothing but their own goodness to protect them — which very goodness 
is in fact the real cause of all the ill-will they have excited." 

The result of this conversation was the despatching Lucy and Phebe 



308 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

to summon Edward with all speed to Reichland, for the purpose of 
arranging the manner of their immediate departure. It had been 
proposed in the first instance to send Caesar on this embassy, but Lucy 
requested to be herself the messenger. She felt doubtful as to the in- 
clination at least of Edward to retreat thus suddenly from the scene of 
his self-imposed labours ; and though she did not believe it possible 
that he would propose her going to Europe without him, still the idea 
haunted her that he had answered only to that part of the proposal 
which regarded herself, evading to speak of his own share in it alto- 
gether. Phebe accompanied her because she knew the way— and be- 
cause she too had business in the forest of her own. 



CHAPTER XLVI. 

Greatly were the destinies of these two young girls changed since 
last they walked together through the dark solitudes of that forest. 
They had then neither of them ever seen Reichland, and had no more 
hope or chance of being borne across the ocean lo that other world 
which was thought of with a sense of vague mystery by the one, and 
the hopeless longing of an imprisoned spirit by the other, than the old 
trees that waved above their heads. 

Now they werebolh anticipating this strange transition ; and though 
with widely different feelings, it was perhaps with equal delight. In 
both it seemed as if the sorrows that had loo deeply stained their young 
lives were about to be quitted for ever ; and Phebe, in addition lo the 
exquisite feeling of enjoyment which the prospect of novelty ever ex- 
cites in the young, had the additional joy of knowing that she was about 
to leave her hereditary chain behind her — that her dear Caesar would 
do so loo — and what if possible is dearer still lo the bosom of a female 
slave, she should nol, if she gave birth lo children, give them at the 
same lime the galling yoke of eternal thraldom. 

Yet, with all these happy thoughts, the actual feelings of both were 
far from gay. The white and the black girl had each a sorrow at her 
heart. Lucy feared for her brother, she hardly knew what danger or 
what suffering; but she could not think of him as he had appeared 
the night before — so pale, so woe-begone — so tenderly anxious for 
her, so mournfully indifferent for himself, without feeling most sadly 
sure that his heart was nol at peace within him, and that he nourished 
some hidden sorrow of even darker dye than those they had hitherto 
so equally shared together. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 80$ 

While surrounded by the happy Steinmarks, all of them seeming to 
forget their owe separate causes of joy, in order lo make common cause 
with her in the general delight of sailing forth upon the bright summer 
ocean, with sorrow behind and hope before them — while still in the 
midst of such a circle Lucy had no leisure to be sad. But now, with 
the faithful and sympathising Phebe by her side, the thoughts thai she 
had felt it her duty to check in the happy circle at Reichland seemed to 
come back upon her with redoubled force, as if to avenge themselves, 
like Coriolanus, for having been banished. 

Phebe, as she walked silently half a step behind her former mistress, 
felt her bosom heave and her eyes overflow as she remembered that 
she was going to see her mother and her little sisters for the last lime. 
This natural sorrow, too, had not much to combat it as long as Phebe 
was within the influence of Caesar and of Reichland ; but the forest had 
not fully closed them round and hid tham from the reproachful glances 
of kind eyes for many minutes before Lucy heard the deep sob of un- 
controllable emotion from her companion. 

She turned round, and affectionately taking her hand, said, in that 
voice of genuine feeling which heals sorrow more than the most 
reasonable consolation that was ever uttered, " My poor Phebe, I 
know why you are weeping — and weep you must, poor girl, and your 
good mother too, for the pang of separation must be terrible." 

" Miss Lucy," said Phebe, trying to check her tears that she might 
speak intelligibly, " will you ask Master Edward for me whether it is 
a sin lo go ? — I sometimes think it must be. — How shall I bear to be 
so very happy and free too, and my husband free, and to know all the 
time that my poor mother is ever and always lo be a slave, and flogged 
too, if that wicked Whitlaw, or any other of the white masters, choose 
to say it! And think, Miss Lucy, of the poor little girls too ! — Sally 
is such a smart little thing ! — suppose she should take the fancy of 
one of those sinful men, and I safe and free, and yet unable to help 
them !" 

11 It is a cruel thought, my poorPhebe," replied her pitying friend ; 
"but you must remember, and Edward, I am sure, will tell you so, 
that were you to sacrifice your happy hopes and remain in slavery 
yourself for ever, you could not benefit them by it." 

"But Ihey would not have to think day by day of the shocking dif- 
ference, Miss Lucy. And they would see me too, and that would 
comfort them." 

" It would comfort them more, Phebe, to know that you were 
happy. And who knows but the time may come that you may help 
them ? You and your husband will have wages — you have kind 
friends lo help you, and who knows, Phebe, but that you may be one 
^ay able to purchase their freedom? Such things have been done, I 



S04 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

know ; and if ever I should earn money of my own, or Edward 
either, be sure we would help you in it." 

" Oh, what words you speak now, Miss Lucy !" cried Phebe in an 
ecstasy. '* Are such things ever done — and by poor blacks who have 
once been slaves themselves, Miss Lucy ?" 

" I have heard so, Phebe." 

11 Then there must be hope that we may do it: for had ever girl a 
husband that would do more for her? — or masters so kind and gene- 
rous? — or a mother and two little sisters who had less black wicked- 
ness in them to be ashamed of? — And may I tell mother, Miss Lucy, 
that such a thing is possible ?" 

" You may tell her that I think so, Phebe ; but that it must be the 
work of years and patience." 

In talk such as this a mile or two was easily beguiled ; and some 
time before Fox's clearing was in sight, Lucy saw her brother walking 
at a little distance under the trees beside the palh. 

" There is Edward!" she exclaimed joyfully: " how lucky that 
we did not miss him ! — Now, Phebe, you had belter hasten on to your 
poor mother. Tell her that if possible I will see her before I go ; but I 
cannot promise it, for we must not be seen with the slaves : and tell her 
too that I shall never forget her long and faithful service — and that if 
such power should be ever mine, I will redeem her and her little girls 
from bondage." 

With such cheering words as these (o carry with her, Phebe no 
longer feared to meet her mother, and with restored spirits continued 
her walk towards the laundry hut; while Lucy left the palh to join 
her brother, who had not yet perceived her. 

In a few minutes, however, the noise she made in approaching roused 
him from his deep reverie, and he raised his head and saw her. It 
was with a smile of alTeclionale pleasure that he hastened forward to 
meet her; and Lucy was so cheered by it, that she almost forgot her 
gloomy forebodings, and spoke to him of their immediate departure 
wilh joy and gladness. 

The sound seemed uncongenial to his spirits, for he turned away his 
head and sighed heavily ; but in the next moment, making an effort to 
conquer his ill-timed gloom, he himself resumed the subject, saying, 
" Do you think, Lucy, they will be able to go before Sunday?" 

"Oh yes, I think so! Almost everything will be ready by Friday 
evening, and on Saturday Mr. Steinmark's light waggon will set off at 
four o'clock in the morning to lake us all. We shall get to Natchez, 
they say, about eight ; and at nine or ten a steam-boat is expected to 
be at the wharf for New Orleans. Does it not seem like a dream, 
dearest Edward, that after all our misery — yes, and at the very mo- 
ment when it was worse than ever — we, you and I, dear Edward, 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 305 

who have so often talked of Europe till our hearts were sick with 
longing for it, should thus set off to visit it? — Is not this like a dream — 
a most delicious dream?" 

" A dream, indeed ! — And the waking, Lucy ? Are you not afraid? — 
do you not feel it possible that disappointment may await you ?" 

" That I may not find everything so fine as I suppose it, Edward ?— . 
do you mean that? It is very possible, certainly. My thoughts do 
gallop, I know, when hope and fancy drive them. But, at least, 
Edward, we shall see no slavery; we shall hear no hymns of free- 
dom, that ' keep promise to the ear, and break it to the sense ;' nor 
shall we ever again, I trust, be where the Word of God is doled out 
to men of one complexion, but declared contraband and illegal to those 
of another." 

" These are goodly and godly hopes, my Lucy," answered Edward 
with a smile, " and may you find them all realized. But, my poor 
girl, you must long remain, I fear, under a heavy load of debt to our 
kind friends : I have never neglected our school, Lucy, but I have 
not one quarter enough, I fear, to pay your passage to Europe." 

" Why do you talk of ?ny debt and my passage, Edward? Why do 
you not say our, as you used to do of all that concerned us?" 

" My dear, dear sister!" began Edward with ominous solemnity, 
"how shall I answer you? That every day you live you become 
dearer to me is most simply true ; and yet I am obliged to act almost 
as if I loved you not. Lucy, my duty is here." 

"Then so is mine too, Edward!" cried Lucy, interrupting him. 
" Where you dwell, there will I dwell als# !" 

Edward Bligh wept like a woman, and fdta minute neither of them 
spoke ; but he restrained himself, and assuming a tone of composure 
very foreign to his feelings, said, " Did you know, my beloved Lucy, 
how grievously you torture me — could you guess how greatly you 
increase the load of sorrow which it has pleased Heaven that I should 
bear, you w T ould not say so." 

"What would you have me say?" replied the suffering girl. 
" Would you have me tell you, that if you will not go with me, I 
will go without you ? W T ould you have me say, that such is my love 
for friends of yesterday, that I am ready for their sakes to leave you, 
Edward — leave you for ever! — Oh, do not ask it of me !" 

" I value as I ought the love that makes you speak thus, Lucy. I 
know your holy and most pure sincerity ; but I must pay a dreadful 
price for it, if it must make me struggle against my conscience, my 
wishes, and my will, to prove myself not ungrateful." 

" Do not speak so harshly — oh, do not, Edward ! It cannot be from 
your heart, I know it is not ; and you only lake this cruel tone to drive 
me to what you think will make my happiness. Now let us make a 

20 



306 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

compromise. I will not again ask you to try new scenes for which 
you have no relish, and you must not ask me to leave you. — Agreed !" 
she added, holding out her hand with a smile ; " is it not agreed, Ed- 
ward? — And now let us never talk of seeing Europe more." 

The voice lhalultered this had not a trace of affectation in it, nor had 
the heart that conceived it. Pure and holy, as her unhappy brother 
said, was the sincerity of Lucy Bligh ; but her words were only the 
more painful to Edward from his knowing their truth so well : for alas ! 
her love could not heal the sorrow — the hopeless melancholy that 
weighed him to the dust. It was not his wild, fervent, unrequited 
love for Lolte Steinmark which had made him thus ; nor was it the 
loss of fortune, of station, and of friends ; nor yet the remembrance, 
though it was ever vividly before him, of his noble-minded liberal 
father dying in abject poverty ; nor the blighted prospects of his inno- 
cent, lovely, and loving sister ; nor the visible worthlessness of his own 
abortive efforts to aid the wretched people for whose benefit he would 
willingly have sacrificed his life : but it was all these together, press- 
ing upon a nature too sensitive to bear the slightest item of the list 
without sinking under it, and too disinterested in its exalted affections 
to permit itself the consolation of expressing its misery, or asking 
from the few who loved him the sympathy it would have been almost 
oppressive to him to find. 

There was no healthfulness in this state of mind ; nor was it in the 
power of any human being to heal it. It was perhaps the conscious- 
ness of this which made the true devotion of poor Lucy seem of so 
little value. Take from hfm his hopeless love, which had seemed to 
seize upon his senses as if to fulfil the destiny which doomed him to 
taste of every mortal pang, and her history was as full of woe as his 
own. But though she had bent before it at times almost as despair- 
ingly as he himself had done, there was an elastic spirit within her 
Which rose at the first touch of hope, and a trusting tenderness of heart 
which made the balm of affection sink into her soul, without the alloy 
of any fear lest it might harm the giver. 

A silence of some minutes followed Lucy's offer of compromise, and 
then her brother answered it by warmly expressing the gratitude he 
felt for her affection. ''There must be a compromise between us, 
Lucy," he added, "but not quite of the important nature that you 
propose: it shall not involve the going or not going to Europe, but 
only the day of departure from hence. As it concerns myself, I must 
slay here till after Sunday, Lucy ; but do not, if I agree to follow you 
to New Orleans afterwards — do not put me in the embarrassing posi- 
tion of making our kind friends alter the day of their departure. They 
cannot, you know, expect to find a vessel ready to sail the moment 
they arrive there, and I shall have quite time enough to join them." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. S07 

"Very well, Edward, — T agree to this willingly; and if you make 
this short delay the only condition you annex to going with us, think 
you that I will not do so joyfully? The Steinmark family then shall 
set off Saturday morning, as they propose. He has sold the place 
and everything belonging to it, you see, to Colonel Dart; and having 
already received payment, he is anxious to lessen the obligation of 
remaining in it as much as possible. You and I can follow on Monday, 
by one of the same vehicles as that which conveyed me the first lime 
to Natchez." 

"No, Lucy, that is not part of your agreement. You must go on 
Saturday with them, and I will follow alone." 

Lucy Bligh would have found it very difficult to explain the effect 
these words produced on her; for she would hardly have ventured to 
say, that, simple as they were, they rung on her ear like the hoarse 
warning of evil. What indeed could she fear? The principles of 
Edward were far too sincere and too deeply religious to justify the 
idea that any thought of self-destruction had taken possession of him ; 
yet why should he wish for this unmeaning and solitary delay? She 
had not courage to ask him, but recovering from the sort of shudder 
which ran over her limbs as he spoke, she answered cheerfully, 

"Very well, Edward; I dare say the family will arrange all that 
very easily — they are too kind to make unnecessary difficulties. And 
now, shall we not return to Reichland together?" 

"I am not fit for society to-day, Lucy: perhaps I shall see you 
to-morrow." 

"May I not stay with you, Edward? I fear you are unwell,— 
and indeed I do not like to leave you." 

"Well then, my love, you shall slay with me," said Edward, 
embracing her; " and for the two days which will intervene before 
your departure, I own I should prefer your staying here. I know it 
is a sacrifice ; but I will not scruple to accept it from you, Lucy." 

"That is my own dear Edward again!" cried the affectionate girl, 
really and truly delighted at the arrangement, which nevertheless 
took her from a very happy scene. Phebe, with traces of many 
"natural tears" upon her heavy eyelids, called at Fox's clearing on 
her way back, and look Lucy's message, which was to say, that her 
brother not being quite well, she had settled to remain with him till 
Friday, when, if he were better, she would walk over to Reichland 
and settle about the manner of their going. 

In delivering this message, Phebe had not failed to mention that 
Master Edward looked very sad, and seemed almost to wish that Miss 
Lucy would leave him quite alone again. 



20 



308 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 



CHAPTER XLVII. 

The first touch of the nearest Choctaw's finger upon his rifle had 
sent Jonathan Jefferson Whillaw back into the forest with a rapidity 
that might almost rival that of the ball which he more than half ex- 
pected to hear whistling after him. 

As he drew near Natchez on his return from his unprofitable ex- 
pedition, he descried Hogstown and Smith, who had already met and 
joined their lamentations on the escape of Lucy. He hailed them, and 
communicated the disagreeable intelligence that he had seen the 
runaway, but in a situation that precluded the possibility of taking 
her; and a chorus of maledictions was uttered by the trio upon the 
infamous license granted to the savages which permitted them to carry 
arms. 

It was now clear that the young preacher of whom they were so 
anxious to make prey would receive such timely warning from his 
sister, as would naturally prevent his assembling his black congrega- 
tion on the following Sunday. 

''You may say that," said Smith to Whillaw, in answer to this 
observation : " he'll be loo cunning to show his nose out on that night, 
at any rate." 

" 1 dubiate a bit about that," observed Hogstown ; " I don't say 
that it isn't likely neither; but I haven't forgotlen my talk with the 
chap in the market-place here. He's as quiet as you will, and could 
stand still a spell, and hear, but say nothing; but he'd that in his eye 
that says ' try me;' and if that slip of a lad has made up his mind to 
pray on the Sabbath night with the niggers, on the Sabbath night with 
the niggers he'll pray." 

"What, when he knows that we shall be down upon him with 
Lynch-law, and Stale-law, and all the laws in Ihe land?" responded 
Smith incredulously. 

" Why, you jest see," said Hogstown, " what a near heat it will 
he 'twixt his wit and our wit. W T e think he won't be there, 'cause 
he'll expect we'll nab him ; and he'll think, maybe, that we won't be 
there, 'cause we know that he'll expect us. So 'lis jest Ihe turn of a 
hair which way's most likeliest to be right." 

"Thai's what 'lis to be Yankee," retorted Smilh, laughing. " We 
Southerners should lake a long spell to think, before we came over it 
so fine as that. However, Hogstown, 'twouldn't do, my man, lo rouse 
up Lynch-law for nothing. Your guess may be right, or your guess 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAVV. 309 

may be wrong; and if we was to rouse our Nalchez-under-hill men to 
do their duly upon (he canter, and lead them out at dead of night into 
the forest, when they'd rather be amusing themselves elsewhere, and 
then let 'em find nothing but you and I and the trees, I'would never 
answer. They'd gel no reward from none of the planters that always 
behave handsome when work's been done; and, maybe, we should 

find it d n difficult to bring 'em together again; and if they're 

cold on the job, we're stumpl outright." 

" Mr. Smith, sir, you're a gentleman as deserves to be listened to, 
if you spoke from July to eternity. What you say is worth a dollar a 
word, and cheap too. But I expect, sir, We might lake a middle 
course — neither altogether neglecting our duty and giving the varment 
a chance of herding together, the black beetles, without being cotched, 
and yet not weakening our effective for nothing, as the general would 
say, by bringing 'em out, when we are not that sure there'll be any 
work to do. I guess, gentlemen, that we ought so to conduct, as to 
avoid both the one damage and the t'other." 

" You're first-rate, Hogstown, by G — d ! And how is it to be done, 
eh?" 

"Why it's not that difficult neither, I should say, Mr. Smith, 
begging your pardon if I diiTer. My judgment would be for one, two, 
three, or more of us as have got the business at heart, and would be 
ready to watch for a spell without hope of fee or reward, but for the 
alone love of Ihe cause ; — I say some few such as that ought by rights 
to rest themselves, with a cigar in their mouth for comfort, jest at that 
spot, Mr. Smith, that you heard the black fellow map out to his miss. 
'Tiseasy enough hiding in such a place and such an hour; and so we 
might see and hear all, and bear witness of something, if something 
there is ; and if not, why we can but go back as we came, and no harm 
done." 

" He's right, Smith," said Whitlaw; " that's the way to fix 'em. 
And there's another reason still, I can tell ye, why it wouldn't do to 
come down upon 'em at the meeting with the Lynchers ; and I'll tell 
you what it is in no time. Them Steinmarks wont be there, as we 
ought to make an example of, — and the niggers will, whose lives must 
be looked after for lucre, if not for love. So let us mark down our 
preacher, and then follow him, the day after maybe, to the German's, 
where I expect they're all likely enough to be found flocking together 
like birds of a feather as they are ; and then would be the lime to let 
fly at 'em. My old colonel intends to higgle a little, I guess, with the 
Dutch fellow about his estate; and a capital bit it is, and we'll get a 
bargain after all, depend upon it. But 'lis plain to me that if we don't 
look sharp, Mr. Smith, we shall lose our example, for they're all taking 
fright, you see, and will be off together in no time. I haven't been 



310 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

able to see my colonel for a minute at a time these two days; but I 
shall charge him to have nothing lo do with the house, and then our 
folks may have license to burn, rob, slay, or what they will; and my 
father will lake care that we shall know when they're lo start." 

" Well, gentlemen," said Mr. Smith, " il is clear that we can't be 
in better hands. Private and public feelings seem to unite to excite 
your zeal; and I can only say, that as I own Ihree hundred and len 
niggers myself, I expect you have no reason to doubt of my willingness 
to help. — Perhaps, Mr. Whillaw, it might be as well lo have a few 
handbills prepared, to stick about atNatchez-under-hill; — 'tis as well 
that the mind of the people should be prepared. 

"'Tis you, Hogstown,asmustdothat, I expect," observed Whillaw; 
" and we'd better meet at Sanders's to-morow night, and get a bit of 
supper together in a private room ; and then w 7 e can have a look at 
your handbills, Hogstown, and settle, maybe, finally what's to be 
done Sunday night. I expect I may be able myself to pick up some- 
thing among our own gangs that may be useful; and if I do, I can 
make it known to you then and there." 

This proposal was agreed to, and the triumvirate separated. 

Whillaw's first care, as in duty bound, was to visit the colonel; 
and as he had inquired for him before starting in pursuit of Lucy, and 
been told that he was in a pretty comfortable fix in his arm-chair, and 
that the doctor expected he was better, he was a good deal startled 
when the black valet told him that " massa was roaring mad wid 
gripes," and that " God-A'mighty only knowed what to do wid him, 
for the doctor was stumped." 

Whillaw hastened lo his room, where he found him in bed, and in 
truth in a very deplorable condition. Inllammalion had taken place, 
and a mortification was expected to follow: but no one had yet been 
thereof sufficient courage to tell the dying man of his danger. No 
sooner was Whillaw informed of it, however, than his active and in- 
telligent spirit suggested to him what was proper lo be done. His 
first care was to summon a lawyer, whom he deposited snugly in one 
of the silling-rooms, with plumcake, iced water, and whisky, where- 
with lo amuse himself. He next procured the attendance of two while 
overseers, who, if wanted, could write their names; and having placed 
them in another room with a bottle of rum and a couple of glasses, he 
returned to the suffering colonel. 

The physician was with him, and after the examination of a few 
minutes, attended Whillaw into another room. 

"It's all over with the colonel, I expect, doctor? " said Whillaw 
with very proper solemnity. 

' ' I calculate he can't last the day, sir," was the reply ; " or at any 
rale he'll never see the morning light again, Mr. Whitlaw. These 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 311 

complaints, sir, go a pace in this country that mostly beats time, set 
it as short as you will." 

" But I guess, doctor, that he won't keep on this fashion to the last ? 
He'll come to, a little, won't he, and be more reasonable-like before 
he goes?" 

" I calculate that it's possible he may, Mr. Whillaw; and so, sir, if 
there is any business to be done, which is your meaning, I expect, I 
advocate your watching without much relaxily of attention. When 
you catch him quiet for a spell, get him to swallow a mouthful of rum, 
and repeat the dose as you see he wants it, till such lime as he may be 
left in peace without inconvenience. — Good day, Mr. Whillaw, sir, — 
I'll look in again as I ride back ; — my cab is wailing for me, 1 expect, 
and I've got to ride as far as Mount Sion." 

Whitlaw looked at the patient, and saw that as yet he was anything 
but quiet ; he therefore ventured to retire for a few moments to re- 
fresh himself, and then returned to the sick chamber, attended by one 
negro, carrying rum and a small glass, and another with all the imple- 
ments necessary for writing. Thus prepared, the confidential clerk 
seated himself where he could watch the sick man without being seen 
by him ; for the appeals of the poor sulTerer to every one within 
reach for the succour which no one could give, was an annoyance to 
which even the philosophy of my hero could not render him entirely 
insensible. 

This very anxious attendance continued for about two hours without 
any visible change in the condition of the colonel ; but at the end of that 
time his complainings began to cease, and he gradually sank into si- 
lence, and something approaching apaihy. 

Whitlaw drew near and contrived to make him swallow the pre- 
scribed cordial. The dying man opened his eyes and attempted to 
speak to him. It was evident he knew him, but equally evident that 
he had not strength to articulate. The confidential clerk poured out 
another glass of rum, and the patient again submitted to the dose, and 
with excellent effect, for in a minute or two he half raised himself iu 
the bed and said quite distinctly — 

"Where the devil have you been, Whitlaw ? " 

"Engaged in your service, my dear sir," replied the young man, 
arranging the bedclothes and the pillow with an air of affectionate as- 
siduity ; "engaged in a way that will, I trust, spare you all farther 
trouble on the score of insurrection, or any thing of that kind." 

" That's well, Whitlaw. — And I wanted to tell you about my pur- 
chase. — I've got it all, and paid down ready-money too; but it's a 
capital purchase, and will turn out un-ac-count-a-ble pro-fit-a-ble." 

The last words being pronounced with considerable languor, and 
even difficulty, a thirq* glass of rum was presented, which was this time 



312 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

taken eagerly by the colonel, and its effect immediately made mani- 
fest by so active an attempt at renewing the conversation, that Whit- 
la vv deemed it prudent to check so idle a waste of very precious breath, 
saying — "My dear Colonel, I'm not altogether easy about you — though 
now you're out of pain there's good hope that all will go right ; only 
your strength must be kept up by cordials, the doctor says, and you 
kept quiet, except as to any matter of business that you may have to 
fix." 

"Business, Whitlaw? How the devil can I be doing business? 
Not but I feel elegant easy too ; but I expect I should be as weak as a 
sick puppy if I were to stir. What business do you think I could do ? 
I couldn't keep my eyes open for two minutes together, to see a nig- 
ger flogged, if he'd been caught at insurrection before my face." 

" No, no, my dear sir, — no such sort of business as that ; that your 
faithful friends can do for you; but no man can be sick, Colonel 
Dart, without wishing to settle his affairs, I expect." 

"Settle? — what? — make my will, d'ye mean? Why the devil 
should I make my will ? — I 'm not going to die, Whitlaw, am I ? " 

" Heaven forbid, my dearest colonel, that at such a moment as this 
the country should lose you ! Never were such principles and your 
influence so much wanted ! — But Dr. Thomas says, that though the 
appearances are very particularly favourable at present, there is jest 
enough possibility of a relapse — though no probability of it, — but jest, 
as he says, enough possibility to make it advisable, if in case the law 
wouldn't dispose of your properly jest as you would have it go — to 
make it advisable for you to leave it your own way instead." 

The sick man groaned heavily and answered not a word. 

The rum-bottle, ever close at hand, was again seized, and again was 
the dram administered to the dying colonel. 

" Am I dying, Whitlaw ? " said he solemnly, and as if rousing all 
his strength to hear the answer. 

" My dear colonel, no," replied the anxious sycophant ; "but the 
doctor says he knows you've no reason to love your nephew overmuch, 
and so he thought that it might help to make you quiet and easy, per- 
haps, if you knew for certain that he'd never get what he never helped 
to make." 

"My nephew ? — where is my nephew ? " said the colonel with very 
alarming incoherence. 

"Thank God, sir, he is not near you, nor likely to be. What was 
it he said you was like, sir, the last time you had him here? Don't 
you remember my overhearing him joking with one of the nigger-girls 
about you?" 

"Don't I?" cried the colonel, starling up in bed, rum and rage 
uniting to rouse the expiring lamp. " I expect I do, Whitlaw. You 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW 3 IS 

heard him say to that wench that he knew I'd a fancy for, that I was 
like a blighted tomato, gelling rotten before it was ripe, — wasn't that 
it ? Curse me if ever I forget it ! " 

" Yes, those were the words, my dear colonel : and yet that's the 
man that will have every cent of your property, estates, slaves, money 
and all, if any unexpected accident should happen to you before you've 
made a will." 

" I'll be d — d if he shall ! " exclaimed the stammering colonel. 
"Send for a lawyer, d'ye hear, Wliitlaw? Never mind giving me 
more rum now — I expect I've had enough; and 'lis your own work 
you'll be doing, I guess, if you bring me a lawyer." 

The lawyer was inslanlly summoned to the room, and the two over- 
seers ordered lo be in waiting on the oulside of it. By the lime this was 
done, the colonel appeared sleepy, and so greatly inclined to repose 
himself that Whillaw feared lest the prize so nearly wilhin his grasp 
should even yet escape him. It was with difficulty that the inspiring 
cordial was now forced wilhin his lips; but by the help of something 
approaching to gentle violence this was effected, and sufficient life re- 
sulted from it to enable him to pronounce the words, "I give all I 
die possessed of, freehold, leasehold, and personal, to Jonathan Jeffer- 
son Whillaw, for his sole use and benefit." Hardly were the words 
uttered, than the two men who were to witness the signature were 
brought in. The lawyer, who saw that he should never be paid for 
the will if he delayed to complete it, wrote the enormous bequest with all 
technical correctness and with a flying pen. Whillaw raised his patron 
in his arms; the document was laid before him, the pen put into his 
clammy fingers, another spoonful of rum forced into his mouth, and 
the name of George Washington Dart scrawled in nearly illegible 
characters upon the paper. In another moment it was duly witnessed; 
and the next, my hero stood, the richest man in Louisiana, before the 
ghastly corpse of his benefactor. 



CHAPTER XLVIII. 

It was certainly a proof either of a very strong mind, or of a very 
strong feeling of hatred, thai this vast change in Ihe condition of Whitlaw 
did not make him forget the object he had in view for Sunday night. 
Neither/did he in the slightest degree neglect the means by which he 
hoped to ensure his success. Before this important event happened to him 
he had decided upon consulting Juno, and his purpose remained unal- 



3,4 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

lered, though, instead of a pitiful clerk with a salary of five hundred 
dollars a year, he would now stand before her, not only as her legal 
master and owner, but as the legal master and owner" also of five 
hundred of her fellows, and of all Ihe load of wealth which they had 
most of them passed Iheir lives in augmenting. 

Such news as this flies fast ; and when the new great man entered 
at daybreak the hovel of the old woman, she already knew that he 
was her master. 

Considering the feelings that rankled in her heart against him, it 
might have been supposed that this intelligence would have been ra- 
ther painful than pleasing to her. But, for some reason or other, it was 
not so; and it was with joy as sincere as that which swelled his own 
bosom that she congratulated him on his great change of fortune. 

" I thought it would please you, Juno," said he, with infinite con- 
descension ; " because it was your own prophecy. Don't you remem- 
ber, Juno, jest before I set off for New Orlines, what you put it ali in 
rhymes about my flying high ?" 

" I remember every word of it, master," replied Juno; " and I'm 
glad it's all likely to come true so soon, or maybe I should not live to 
see it." 

" Oh ! you'll see more yet, old woman — here's money for the 
good luck your words brought with 'em, and now tell me how soon 
I shall get into the senate — that is, after I've done sat my time in 
congress ?" 

Juno fixed her eyes upon the ground for a moment, and perhaps was 
trying lo string into doggrel rhyme, as she was wont to do, the words 
she intended to utter; but if so, she probably found the gift had left 
her, and that she must conjure fools into her circle by other means, 
for after some short delay she shook her head and replied, 

11 I will tell you the day and the hour in one week from this day. — 
But this I will tell you, now : Master of all though you be, your for- 
tune, such as I saw it when I spoke my prophecy, is not yet all come 
to pass — but it shall ! — and then you will again remember the words 
of Juno!" 

The rich man smiled upon the miserable old woman with increased 
benignity, and said — 

" Thankye, Juno — your word always brings luck, and now I want 
it upon another point. You've given many hints, you know, to the 
poor colonel that's gone, that mischief was brewing among the slaves 
— and that's come true too, like everything else. Now you must know 
that I and some friends with me have found out in a curious way 
enough, that there's lo be an unlawful praying and preaching with the 
black people in the forest on Sunday night ; and one as we've long had 
our eyes upon , as no friend to the cause of good order, and the pros- 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 315 

perity of Ihe State, Juno, is to be there stirring the poor ignorant souls 
up to rebellion. Now you're up to a thing or two, Juno, and you 
know that the best law to stop such work as that is Lynch-law, which 
does much and says litlle ; for all the palavering in the courls does more 
harm than good most times. However, we think that the chap Bligh, 
as the preacher's called, has had a hint of warning given him by a 
sister of his — has got a notion of what we're about, and I'm come now 
jest to ask your opinion whether Bligh will be at the place of meeting 
or not ; — 'cause, you see, it wouldn't do to let any body rouse up the 
people and bring 'em out to the forest in the middle of the night, and 
then to balk 'em — would it?" 

" No, master, no," replied the sibyl earnestly. "Do that, and trust 
old Juno, they'll never more obey at any word that you or yours 
could give. Have you any sure knowledge, master, that the black 
people do meet to pray?" 

"Only what we heard a young nigger say to the gal, Bligh's 
sister." 

"Then listen to Juno, master! — Trust no lips that tell you that, 
and trust no eyes but your own. Go yourself, with me alone to place 
you, to this place of meeting, if it can be found. There lie concealed 
and see all. Then you will know what slaves dare do this thing, and 
what do not ; and then all may meet with justice. For them, the 
master's will, and the master's hand will suffice; — but for their leader, 
— take care how you touch him in the midst of them ! — Remember 
your wealth and greatness, and do not risk your own safety for the 
sake of seizing with difficulty and danger one that may be brought to 
public justice in the face of day. Mark your man, and when you 
know him, then set your avengers on him; — but not, if you listen to 
Juno, not till after the next Sabbath night is gone and past." 

Whillaw did listen, and with almost devout attention, to every 
word she spoke; and even after she ceased, waited a moment to be 
sure that she had finished. He then replied exactly as she wished and 
expected. 

" I expect, Juno, that the wisest thing I can do is jest to take your 
advice. 'Twas you foretold my fortune ; and 'lis you, I guess, as 
can best show me how to keep it. So, instead of joining with them 
as have no such good friends as you to counsel them, Til tell 'em that 
the colonel's death prevents my seeing them ; and that as for the meet- 
ing, I shall have means to tell 'em more about it after next Sabbath. 
That's what I'll do, Juno, — and I expect that's what you approve?" 
Juno assured him that if he acted thus, he would act wisely, and 
not only in conformity with her wish, but with the wishes of all those, 
whether inhabitants of earth, or air, or heaven, who watched over his 
destiny with the same care that she did. 



316 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

"And what must I say to Hogstown and Smith?" said the rich 
man, looking rather puzzled, " if they find out that after putting them 
off, I went to the forest by myself?" 

" They will never find it out," said Juno. 

" But I don't see how I'm to help telling them, if I find Bligh there. 
For 'lis Hogstown above all that's to do the business at Natchez- 
under-hill among the white people, to set 'em on at Steinmark's. 
Juno, I hate them people as I hate the devil, and I must have their 
house burnt over their heads before they start." 

"Must you have their house burnt down, master?" said Juno in a 
tone of much reverence. 

" Why, to tell you the truth, my mind is more set upon that, I 
think, than even catching the parson." 

"And when they're jest ready to start," said the old woman, 
chuckling, "with all their goods done packed, you will put them in 
an unhandsome fix, sure enough, master." 

Whillaw laughed too, and replied with the most familiar jocose- 
ness, " That's a fact; and it's a pleasure I don't mean to lose, Juno, 
for it's long since I've owed 'em a grudge, I promise ye." 

"The colonel bought the place, I'm told," said Juno, "just before 
he died." 

"And that's true," replied the heir; "but not the house. I 
heard him say, poor man, the last talk of business we got together, 
that the Dutchman must get another chapman for his house and furni- 
ture, for he wanted nothing but the land." 

" It would be a pity that you should not see it burning !" said Juno, 
who happened to know perfectly well, though he did not, that it was 
his own properly ; — " but it will be difficult to contrive about the lime. 
— It will be too late after the Sabbath night; — you'd neither feel pain 
nor pleasure about il then." 

" And why not, I wonder? — What makes you say that, Juno?" 
The old woman started, as if roused from a reverie in which she 
had inadvertently thought aloud ; but immediately recovering herself, 
she replied, wilh perfect self-possession, " I mean, master, that I 
know well enough, that when great gentlefolks get a whim into their 
head, if it is not done off at once, they will not care a cent about it 
afterwards." 

"I know what you're thinking of, Juno," said Whillaw, again 
laughing heartily : " you're thinking of my whim about Phebe, and 
how I clean forgot il when I come back from Orlines, after you'd 
taken all thai trouble about it too. But this is another sort of whim, 
I promise ye, and it will keep hot longer than Sunday next." 

" Well, master, you are the lord of all now, and you've only got to 
hold up your finger and jest speak a word,, and you will find people 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON VVMITLAW. 317 

enough always ready to do your pleasure, and that without any help 
from Hogstown." 

" I expect you're not that far wrong there, Juno ; money does give 

a man a d n sight of power, — and so I expect I'll jest he still a 

spell, as you would have me, and see what will happen after." 

This important consultation ended, the proprietor of Paradise Plan- 
tation returned to his mansion for the especial purpose of issuing orders 
respecting the funeral of his predecessor. 

As soon as he was gone, Juno set out upon an expedition upon 
which she had meditated incessantly since her return from her fatal 
visit to New Orleans. It was already night, and though a southern 
summer's night is rarely very dark, there was less light in the atmo- 
sphere than usual. Juno's step too was less firm and assured than 
it was wont to be. Age, which, though it had long marked her aspect 
with the appearance of more than ordinary decrepitude, had hitherto 
seemed to have touched her strength both of mind and body but 
lightly, had at last fallen heavily upon her. Her movement was slow 
and painful, the wild vivacity of her rapid eye was dimmed and 
quenched, and Juno had little now beside peculiar ugliness to distin- 
guish her from any other negress of fourscore. 

The task she was about to execute led her to several widely-sepa- 
rated points of the extensive grounds; and the old bamboo that had 
hitherto served her so well in many ways was hardly stout enough 
to support the weight she threw upon it, as she stumbled along over 
the rough paths she had to tread. 

At length she reached the dwelling of one of the men who, together 
with his family, had been among the most zealous of Edward's negro 
congregation. The inhabitants of the hut were sunk in sleep when 
the old woman raised the latch and entered ; but such visits from her 
were not unusual, and the weary negro uttered no complainings as she 
forced him to shake oil the heavy sleep that clung to him, by telling 



him that she was come to say that to which no negro must turn an 
unwilling ear. 

"And what be that, mother?" said poor Titus, yawning. 

"Titus!" she replied, while the most violent emotion shook her 
trembling frame, — "Titus! the hour is come ! That wretch, that dog, 
that Whitlaw — he who has taken accursed wages for the wanton shed- 
ding of your innocent blood — he who has made your heavy chain a 
thousand times more heavy still, who has made your tears his sport 
and your torture his pastime, — that man is now your master." 

"I know it, mother! — we all know it; and what then? we hab 
more lashes and more work to look for, mother ; but you do no good 
to wake me ub to talk ob it." 

" Titus, if you are a man, you will not let this villain live! Now 



318 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

is the time to take him — now is the appointed hour; now, when his 
riches and his glories hang thick upon him — now tear him up root 
and branch, and throw him to the wolves and foxes, that are his 
kindred." 

"0 Lorl Lor ! Juno, — what monstrous wickedness is that 
you say! Is we not Christians, Juno? and what would our Massa 
Edward say if we did such a deed as that ?" 

"It is to save your master Edward's life that you must doit. The 
wretch has pledged himself within this hour to shed the blood of that 
your best and only friend — and will you let him live?" 

" Shed the blood of Massa Edward, Juno? No, no, he hab no 
power to do that, for God will come to help him." 

" Impious and profane!" cried Juno, once more inspired by the 
strength of passion — " you shrink from the task yourself, and dare call 
on God to help you! — He has helped you by my means, — he has given 
me power to tell you of the treason this wretch meditates against the 
spotless saint who has taught you to know his name, — and now you 
will see him butchered in cold blood before your eyes, rather than raise 
your coward arm to help him!" 

11 No, Juno, no, — we will not see it : and if you will only bring our 
Massa Edward to bid us do this thing, why then we'll do it, Juno." 

Baffled and disappointed where she had hoped for aid, Juno in bitter 
anger left the hut of the negro Christian, and sought to use her in- 
fluence upon another. Her success was no belter. Poor Edward, could 
he have that night witnessed how well these simple people had " learned 
Christ," would have felt repaid for ail his sulTerings! 

The whole night wore away in these fruitless efforts to neutralize the 
effect of a faith so welcome and so healing to the hearts of those who 
suffer; and the weary, miserable Juno crawled back to her distant 
shelter just as the overseers were driving their gangs to the fields. 

M It must be poison then, — poison by my own hand mixed and mi- 
nistered. There will be comfort in that, but it may not be so easy, — 
first, I must get the drug from Natchez. — It shall be henbane, accursed 
henbane, — it is thus they poison dogs — a fitting death for him!" 

But her mind was not clear ; and though her purpose and her will 
were desperale, she had lost that quiet, cunning mastery of herself, 
which hitherto insured her success in nearly everything she undertook. 

We must leave her meditating on her fixed purpose, and turning in 
her wild and wondering brain the means by which she might hope to 
effect it, while we return to Reichtand to see a little how their packing 
proceeded, and whether they were likely to depart for New Orleans at 
the appointed time. 

When Phebe returned, and instead of Lucy, delivered to the family 
the message she had sent, a very considerable degree of gloom seemed 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 319 

to fall upon the spirits of the whole family. Frederick himself was 
decidedly not the least disturbed by it. He made Phebe repeat more 
than once her very graphic description of Edward, both when they first 
watched him taking his sad and solitary promenade under the trees, 
and when she had finally left him, with Lucy sealed by his side at 
Iheir cottage door, looking " as settled and as quiet as if she had never 
left her home." 

" Dear excellent creature!" cried Steinmark with enthusiasm 

" that indeed is 'a woman that a man might love to lead round the 
world with him,' — a second Mary. Poor thing ! she did seem so very 

happy here! To-day I think we must leave them quietly together 

they have been sorely tried, and, as I believe often happens, the wo- 
man has shown more passive courage than the man. To-morrow I 
will go myself and see if I cannot win our melancholy Jaques into our 
circle. So now again to business, children. Who has remembered 
the dried plants? I must not have them left — nor my fossils either 
heavy and cumbrous though they be.'* 

Karl was decidedly fidgelty through the whole day, and more than 
once asked his father if he did not think it very likely that " his me- 
lancholy Jaques" would refuse to accompany them after all. 

Now this was exactly what Frederick did think : he had remarked 
so much high-wrought and romantic independence of feeling in Edward, 
such almost morbid dread of incurring obligation, and such an aban- 
donment of all that the world calls pleasure, that the idea of his finally 
refusing to go to Europe, because he had not the means of paying his 
own and his sister's expenses, perpetually recurred to him. What 
made this idea the more painful to him was the very strong suspicion 
he entertained that his situation, and that of poor Lucy too, was full of 
danger. Insult had already been heaped upon him, and judging from 
what had happened elsewhere, it was highly probable that injury would 
follow. 

With these feelings he set off upon his benevolent expedition the 
following day, determined not to let any idle ceremony or want of open 
speaking on his own part interfere with the object he had in view. 
Karl was very desirous of accompanying him; but the gentle philo- 
sopher remained firm in his refusal, being determined, if needful, to 
use a tone of remonstrance with the too sensitive Edward, which the 
presence of another might render unnecessarily painful. 



320 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OP 



CHAPTER XLIX. 

Seated exactly as Phebe had left them, Lucy plying her needle, and 
Edward with a volume in his hand, which, however, he read not — she 
talking with that subdued cheerfulness which hoped to animate yet 
feared to wound her melancholy brother; and he, listening as a man 
might do who fondly loved the speaker, but had no share in the subject 
of which she conversed ; — it was thus that Frederick Sleinmark, having 
skilfully and successfully followed Phebe's instructions as to the route 
he should take, found the pair he sought. 

Lucy uttered an exclamation of joy, and sprang forward to meet him. 
Edward coloured with a feeling which, if he could have dispassionately 
and with perfect reason weighed and judged his actions, might have 
taught him to doubt their wisdom at least, if not their purity. If thus 
withdrawing himself from the friendly hand that sought to save him, 
and separating with a violence that threatened to destroy them both, the 
destinies of his orphan sister from his own — if these things had been 
wholly good and wholly wise, Edward Bligh would not have blushed 
as the mild eye of Frederick Sleinmark rested on him. 

Edward did not, — alas! he could not, reason thus himself; but his 
friend did, and a smile that spoke hope of success over feelings of which 
the amiable owner was visibly ashamed lighted up his countenance as 
he sat down between the brother and sister. 

" Edward, you know what I am come for — I see that in your face, 
so one portion of my discourse may be spared;— and I see, too, that you 
would not be very sorry were I to spare you the remainder also ; but 
this I cannot do — unless, indeed, you will lay down your arms at once, 
and consent to march out of your garrison with all the honours of war?" 

" Do not, my kind friend, seek to draw me from this humble shelter 
now. You know not — you cannot know the deep and solemn thoughts 
which are at work within me. It is my duty to listen to them, and I 
even doubt whether — having, through your goodness, the power of 
giving her a better home — I am not wrong in letting my sister — though 
she alone of the whole world can faintly and distantly comprehend a 
part of what passses in my heart,— I doubt, Mr. Steinmark, if I am not 
wrong even in letting Lucy stay with me." 

11 You are indeed ! — and I rejoice to find that on that point you now 
seem able to reason justly, Edward : I only wish that you had strength 
of mind and firmness of character sufficient to enable you to act ac- 
cordingly. But this, my poor friend, it is evident you have not, or 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW . S2l 

you would not suffer Ihis dear girl, who, though she has not yet counted 
twenty years, lias tasted more real sorrow than is usually awarded lo 
the innocent as their mortal burden for a whole life; — you would not 
in that case, Edward, suffer her to turn from the warm affection of a 
family, who are able and willing lo protect and cherish her, back to 
the misery and desolation that it is your capricious and diseased taste 
to prefer." 

It might be difficult to say whether Edward or Lucy were the most 
astonished at this address. Yet their feelings upon it were wholly dif- 
ferent. Lucy believed in the sincerity and humility of her heart that 
the flattering welcome she had met at Reichland proceeded from no 
claims of her own upon their kindness or good liking, but solely from 
the love and reverence whicli they bore to her unfortunate but ad- 
mirable brother. In addition, however, to the astonishment which 
arose from the individual affection expressed for herself, she was at 
least equally surprised at the tone of strong though friendly censure 
assumed by Mr. Steinmark in speaking of Edward's disiaste for all so- 
ciety, and his melancholy clinging to the sadness that had crushed him. 
There was no mixture of selfishness in the anxiety with which she 
walched the effect of this on his countenance, nor in the hope that 
flultered at her heart as she at length read there an ingenuous acknow- 
ledgment that his monitor was right. 

The first emotion, indeed, which this address produced on Edward 
was, like that of his sister, extreme surprise. He was fully aware of 
having inspired a most benevolent and kindly feeling in Ihe generous 
heart of Frederick Steinmark, but till now had no idea that he held 
such a place there as should inspire the paternal interest which this 
strong reproof manifested. The manner in which this reproof affected 
him — the grateful, and even the gratified emotion with which he listened 
to words apparently so harsh, showed plainly what Ihe generous nature 
was, which sorrow 7 and over-wrought enthusiasm had so sadly 
marred. 

"My dear and most true friend!" exclaimed Edward, rising from 
his seat and taking the extended hand of Steinmark, "you have indeed 
conquered me, and, with the exception of one trifling wilfulness that 
still clings to my heart, I promise lo do all that you would have me." 

"Then you are indeed the man I thought you were when I first 
offered you my friendship. For the 'trifling wilfulness,' we shall 
find time to talk of it hereafter; but the first use I make of Ihe power 
you have given me is to command you both instantly to set to work to 
get all things ready for your voyage. Ceesar shall be here with Karl's 
little cart in an hour or two, to convey your packages lo Reichland ; 
and Karl himself shall follow to escort you home — home, my dear 
children, to my heart and house. You ought to thank me, Edward, 

31 



322 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

for not bringing him with me, as he desired most vehemently that I 
would do; but I knew that I was very angry, and that I should scold 
you heartily, and I did not think it quite fair that anybody but Lucy 
should overhear it."' 

Jestingly as this was said, its thoughtful and observant kindness was 
like balm to the wounded and sensitive Edward, and he resolved, let 
it cost him what it would, to endure the sight of Sigismond's happiness 
without flying from it, — nay, even to welcome it as a penance for 
having suffered an earth-born passion to mix itself in his soul with his 
thoughts of heaven. 

Lucy's joy at witnessing the benign effects of the good man's elo- 
quence was in proportion to the heavy weight, almost amounting to 
despair, which had rested upon her heart before his arrival. The 
dreadful struggle that awaited her, between leaving forever the bro- 
ther she so loved and who so much needed her care, and remaining 
with him contrary to his wishes and his will, shook her firmness more 
than anything she had yet endured. But now all smiled again: they 
should together see that world on which, from her very earliest years, 
her fancy had been fixed; and, what was perhaps a blessing more dear- 
ly valued still, they should leave together, and, as she trusted, for 
ever, the land that had witnessed (heir bitter sutTerings. 

In a few hours they were again at Reichland ; and poor Edward 
deserved more praise than any one, even including Lucy, thought of 
giving him, for, the violent efforts he, made to conquer a sensation of 
misery that more than once made him wish that, without sin, he could 
close his eyes for ever on the light of day. Yet all rejoiced at hearing 
him speak with hope of the future, and with pleasure at the idea of the 
voyage they were about to make. Neither Edward nor Lucy had ever 
yet seen the ocean ; a circumstance by no means uncommon to the un- 
comniLMcial portion of the inhabitants of Kentucky ; — indeed, the pro- 
portion of females in that state who have seen the sea, to those who 
ha\e nut, may be fairly stated as about one to a hundred. 

This first evening that Edward Bligh had consented to pass with 
the happy race of Sleinmark as one of their family— this first night 
that he- had consented to pass beneath their roof, was that of Thurs- 
day. The following day had nearly run its course, the labours of 
preparation were nearly ended, and all, save one, were looking for- 
ward to the morrow as the delightful moment at which their hopes 
were to begin their course of fruition, when Hermann Steinmark, who 
shared all his father's hatred to the feeling which is called " prejudice 
of colour" said to his mother, 

" I wish you would let that gay young Ca?sar and his chere amie 
go in the same waggon with us, mother. It would be a perfect treat to 
watch their ecstasy." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 323 

" I think so too, Hermann. I never saw creatures so happy. And 
it is the prettiest tiling in the world, loo, to walcli Phebe's lillle April 
showers when she thinks of her poor mother; for then again comes 
the bright sunshine of love anil hope, and her lears arc dried in an 
inslant. But we shall not have placu for two — and you would not be 
so cruel as to part the lovers ?" 

11 How many does your waggon hold?" said Edward, timidly. 

" Nine," answered Mary, — " three on each seat: and I really do 
not think it would be fair to the horses, especially as we have the use 
of them out of grace and favour, to lake more. So Hermann must 
postpone the pleasure of watching the happy pair till we are fairly 
launched upon the Mississippi ; and before we reach Germany, he 
will have a very fair opportunity of judging whether their affection is 
likely lo be enduring." 

"But if you take them with you, there will be but nine," said Ed- 
ward. " My kind friend half promised to indulge me in one trifling 
wilfulness; and this is, the determination to follow you to New Or- 
leans on Monday." 

No one made any answer. Frederick Sieinmark, who was talking 
very gaily to Lucy at the moment this declaration was made, slopped 
short in the midst of what he was saying, but uttered not a word in 
reply to it. About half an hour afterwards he left the room, and as he 
did so, touched the arm of Edward, saying, " Come with me, Bligh, 
for a moment — I want to speak to you." 

Edward immediately rose and followed him. What passed be- 
tween them was never exactly explained ; but, by some means or 
other, everyone in the house knew before they went lo bed that the 
drive to Natchez on their way to New Orleans was postponed. 

The Saturday passed in saying farewell to such of their widely-scat- 
tered neighbours as had excited most interest among them. The Ger- 
man servants were sent oil with the goods. The favourite walks, 
and even the favourile trees, were visited ; and even the very cattle 
which had been sold with the estate received a parting look of 
kindness. 

Edward and Lucy ventured to visit many of those who had made 
part of their woodland congregation. Their speedy departure, they 
knew, must quench any jealous fears which seeing them address the 
negroes might excite ; and Ihey were personally so entirely unknown 
among the officers on the estate of Paradise Plantation, that they were 
considered by all, except such of the HaviHas knew them, as travelling 
strangers who were examining all things for the gratification of their 
curiosity. 

Lucy remarked that as her brother turned away from each of his 
sable and sorrowing flock, — and many were the tears they shed,— he 

-n * 



324 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

spoke a few farewell words apart lo each of them. Poor Peggy was 
the last they visited, — and a melancholy visit it was: but she, loo, 
received Edward's last greeting apart, and seemed to derive some feel- 
ing of comfort from his words. Oid Juno could not be found : Ihey 
visited her remote cabin twice in the course of the day ; but the 
frail door was locked, and every attempt at making themselves heard 
ineffectual. - 

On Sunday, which was the good Clio's only holiday, she was invited 
to take her tea with IheReichiand family ; Lucy and her brother both 
declaring, that so far from feeling any displeasure at the mysterious story 
and unintelligible warning she had brought, they had the highest re- 
spect for her character as described by the neighbours who had known 
her so long, and loved her the better for the care she had laboured lo 
take of thern, though not very well understanding what the danger was 
from which she wished to guard them. 

Clio appeared in her very best attire ; and, spile of the sorrow she 
expressed and felt at the approaching departure of her friendly neigh- 
bours, she was so elated at the rich inheritance which had fallen lo her 
nephew, that her conversation was, as Karl observed, perfectly spar- 
kling with delight. All Irace of her late alarm seemed to have passed 
away ; and when Mary referred to it by inquiring if she had heard any 
more of the threatened mob, she only answered, 

" Dear Mississ Sleinmark, ma'am, what can be heard of now 
at Natchez but only the prosperity of my darling of Paradise Plan- 
tation?" 

"Then you have heard nothing more of that strange story about 
our friends Mr. and Miss Bligh?" said Steinmark, looking at Ihem as 
he spoke. 

"No, indeed ; and I beg their pardons downright, for I expect 
'twas a story my Jonathan brought out lo us for fun — for never a word 
more of it have I heard, good or bad. He was after asking me a lot 
of questions, Jonathan was, before he was the master of your place, 
Master Steinmark, and Paradise Plantation, and the five hundred nig- 
gers, and the money, and all the rest of the treasure : but since that, 
though he has been out to tell us of his greatness, he said never a word 
about any of ye." 

" Well, Clio," said Lolte, " I hope now you will leave off working 
in the store, and that you will enjoy yourself all the rest of your life, as 
you deserve to do." ^ 

" Me ! — Miss Lotle dear^-Do you mean me never io do no more 
work? — My I that would be jam! But how can I be so unrea- 
sonable as to look lo live like a lady, jest because my darling boy's 
made a planter, and a congress man, and a senator, and a president, 
maybe, Miss Lotle? Why for should I be a burden upon him for 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 325 

all (hat ? — Bless his sw.eet face ! I'd work for him now, if he'd let me, 
harder lhan any slave — only it would not seem so grand for him." 

This was a theme poor Clio could not weary of; but the lime for 
her departure came, and she did depart — and many were the good 
wishes interchanged, and many and affectionate the farewells spoken, 
and repealed, till the last gale was passed and the simple-hearted Clio 
disappeared. 

For another hour or two the family remained together. The time 
and manner of departure on the morrow was then finally arranged, 
and the party separated. 

Lucy, as she passed a small room at the foot of the stairs, fancied 
she heard her brother's voice within it, conversing earnestly with 
Sleinmark. She paused for a moment to ascerlain Ihe fact ; for it was 
her purpose lo enter Edward's room before she went to bed, as during 
the whole day she had not passed a moment with him alone. Whilst 
listening for a sound that might give her the information she desired, 
she heard Sleinmark say, " And Ihey have promised to meet you?" 
Edward replied, " They have ;" and satisfied as lo the fact, though 
puzzled by the words, she passed on, wailing on the stairs for Lolte, 
who had been engaged with her mother for a few moments in the 
parlour below. 

As soon as the two girls reached the apartment which they shared 
belween them, Lolte prepared immediately lo go to bed, declaring 
herself so fatigued by all her walkings and talkings, that she feared 
she should hardly be awake in Ihe morning early enough to be ready 
by the hour fixed. 

"You look lired, dearLotle," said Lucy, — "so make haste and 
get lo sleep as fast as you can. I will not disturb you ; bul I must 
say one word to my poor pale Edward before I go to bed, for I have 
hardly spoken lo him lo-day. I shall not slay long, and I will creep 
back again as quietly as a mouse." 

" You will not find your brother in his room, Lucy ; my mother 
told me that he is shut up for ihe third lime lo-day with my father in 
the little parlour. What can they be consulting about now ?" 

" Heaven knows!" said Lucy, with something like an anxious 
sigh. " Bul if he is not come up stairs yet, I will wait for him in his 
room. So good night, dear Lolte!— go to sleep, and be sure I will 
not wake you." 

Lucy found, as she expected, her brother's room untenanted; and 
silting down beside Ihe open window, she determined lo wait for him. 
She still fancied that she heard at intervals the voices of Sleinmark 
and her brother in the room below ; but at lenglh everything was 
silent, Ihe last sound she heard being that of a door carefully 
opened and then closed again. But slil! her brother came not ; and 



$26 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

weary as she was, she would have given up the idea of speaking to 
him and stolen (o bed beside her friend, had not a sort of vague anxiety, 
a dread of something though she knew not what, still kept her ner- 
vously awaiting his approach. 

While debating with herself whether she should not go down stairs 
to learn what detained him, she fancied she saw through the still open 
window, which commanded a view of the path that led from the back 
of the house into the forest, the figure of Edward gliding rapidly along 
amongst the trees. The waning moon had but just risen above the 
horizon, but the stars were very bright, and the fire-flies so numerous 
and so brilliant as greatly to increase the light. For a moment he was 
out of sight among the bushes ; but again he reappeared, and that in a 
spot more open. She could not be mistaken, his white summer dress 
and the large straw hat he wore made this impossible : it was cer- 
tainly Edward ; but where he could be going thus secretly, without 
ever communicating his purpose to her, defied conjecture. She con- 
tinued to watch him till he was out of sight, and then sal down again, 
not so much with the idea of awaiting his return, as to meditate upon 
the mysterious cause cf his expedition. Whatever it might be, how- 
ever, it was evident that Sleinmark was acquainted with it; and this 
conviction reassured her so greatly, that she rose from her chair, de- 
termined to go to bed and to sleep with the conviction that nothing 
could be wrong which he thought right. 

As she gave one parting look, as she turned to go, at the solemn 
shades of that dark forest which she was so soon about to leave for 
ever, the remembrance of the midnight prayers of which it had been 
so often the temple, came to her mind, and at the same instant the idea 
struck her with all the force of conviction, that it was for this her bro- 
ther was gone. It was the Sabbath night — it was the very hour at 
which his congregation were wont to meet — it was the last time he 
could ever raise his voice in prayer among them. It was for this he 
had stayed, it was for this the good Sleinmark had delayed his de- 
parture, and it was for this he had spoken a farewell word in secrel to 
each of his flock. 

11 Inexpressibly affected by this idea, and feeling that his reason for 
excluding her from a scene which they had hitherto so constantly and 
so delightfully enjoyed together, must be that he still thought some 
danger might be feared from the persons who had so terrified her at 
Natchez, she instantly decided upon following him. 

With noiseless steps she descended the stairs, and passing through 
a slightly fastened door into the farm-yard, she gained the path by 
which her brother had disappeared, unheard and unseen by any. 

This path turned, before it penetrated the forest, in such a direction 
as to command the principal front of the house ; and as Lucy looked 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 327 

towards it as she passed along, she perceived that the large windows 
of the common silling-room were still lighted, 

"They are wailing up for him," thought Lucy: "can I forgive 
them for endeavouring to make me less watchful and less careful ol him 
than themselves?" 

She walked as rapidly as the imperfect light would permit through 
a very rough and unfrequented path ; hut when she arrived at length 
at the comparatively open space where the prayer-meetings had always 
been held, she rejoiced most fervently that she was not absent from 
the scene that met her view. Her heart had rightly suggested the 
object of Edward's secret walk — he was there surrounded by the hap'.ess 
beings to whom he had given hope unknown before. He had already 
concluded the prayer in which with whispered cadence they were all 
wont to join, and was addressing to Ihem a farew 7 ell so full of pious 
feeling and of tender love, that the strongest emotion was evinced by 
those he was about to leave; — sobs and groans interrupted him, while 
his own tears fell thick and fast upon his pallid cheeks. 

Lucy gazed at the whole scene for a moment, and then, unseen by 
any, emerged from the trees, and kneeled silently down behind her 
brother. 

It must have been a hard and crabbed nature that could have resisted 
the holy fervour and the deep melancholy of that parting scene. 

Edward ceased — then once more raised his voice to implore a bless- 
ing on them, stretched out his arms and waved a last farewell, and 
turning at last with slow r and lingering step to go, received Ihe pale and 
weeping Lucy in his bosom. 

Startled, but not displeased, — for now he believed indeed that no 
ambushed danger threatened them, — he drew her arm within his, and 
equally unable at that moment either to give or receive explanation, 
they silently entered Ihe covert of the forest in the direction that led 
to Reich land. 

Before they had taken many steps, however, a pair of powerful 
arms seized Edward and held him pinioned; while a man armed wilh 
a pistol started from the bushes into the path before them, and pre- 
senting the muzzle to the breast of Lucy, said in a whisper loo low for 
the departing negroes to hear, — " Speak one word, or utter a single 
squeak, and by G — d Ihe gal shall be shot dead before ye !" 

These words contained a power more effectual than anything save 
death itself for obtaining the silence demanded, and the party remained 
in the same altitude and without a word being breathed by any of Ihem 
for many minutes. The man who held Edward then said to his com- 
panion, " Peer out a spell, and see if ihe black beetles are oil." 

The man who held the pistol obeyed this command, still keeping it, 



328 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

however, directed towards the prisoners ; and in a few minuts resumed 
his post, saying — " Crawled off every varment of 'em." 

" Now, then, for your rope, Hogslown ; — we'll bind (his soft saint 
hand and foot, lest he might lake a fancy to kicking ; and as to the 
miss, I'll manage her in a jiffy — you've got no Choctaw guard now, 
my dear, to take your part." 

" But a white man may do as well as a red one," cried Karl Stein- 
mark, making his way through the bushes, and seizing the speaker by 
the collar. 

Fortunately the other ruffian had laid his pislol on the ground while 
he assisted in binding Edward ; and as Karl was followed by his falher 
and his two brothers, all well armed with bludgeons, the struggle was 
of no long duration. Karl caught up the almost fainting Lucy, and 
carried her off in his arms; Henrich seized upon the pistol ; and Slcin- 
mark and Hermann, after releasing Edward, quietly led him away, 
merely informing their discomfited landlord, for it was no less a man, 
that if he or his companion approached them, the pislol should be in- 
stantly discharged. 

Sleinmark's first idea was that there must be others still lying in 
ambush near them ; but perceiving that the only two who had hitherto 
appeared were walking off very rapidly in a contrary direction, he 
marshalled his own party into good marching order, and not thinking 
Lucy in a state to answer questions, endeavoured to learn from Edward 
how it happened that she was there, when he had so positively pro- 
mised not to take her. 

Of this imprudence at least it was easy for the agitated young man to 
clear himself ; but when his friend said, "And where, Edward, are 
all ihe reasonings by which you proved so ably lhat ihcre could be no 
danger that this wretched Whitlaw should pursue you farther ?" he 
was silent. He had, as he well knew, affected more confidence in the 
rich man's forgetting him amidst his new possessions than he felt; and 
he dared not say to Steinmark lhat it had been less terrible to him to 
brave the chance of a martyrdom — which he had often prayed for — 
than leave the land without invoking a parting blessing on his forsaken 
people. 

His meek silence availed him belter perhaps than any defence could 
have done, and Frederick Steinmark only added in a tone of deepfelt 
satisfaclion, "Well, well, young wronghead, it is all very happily 
over ; so no farther reprovings are necessary. But truly Lucy would 
find it advisable to atlach to her daily service a body-guard of stout 
Choctaws if she remained in the country with you, Edward, for some- 
how or other you have contrived to render our hitherto peaceful forest 
no very peaceable retreat for her." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 329 

Poor Edward fell (he Irulh of (his and sighed deeply, but again he 
answered not; and the kind-hearted Sleinmark held out his hand to him, 
saying •' Come,, come, Bligh, I think we must all exchange indul- 
gences. You must forgive me and my hoys for breaking parole and 
coming after you, — which, by the way, you would never have known 
if you had not needed it ; and we must forgive you, now and forever, 
I suppose, for your rashness and pertinacity; and we must all forgive 
this very naughty girl, if we can, for the risk she made us run of all 
being very miserable for her sake. 

The tone in which this was said produced its intended effect on 
Edward, for once more he looked up again ; it rallied loo llie spirits 
of Lucy ; and the whole party returned to the farm with the happy 
consciousness of having escaped a great danger, and the happier feeling 
still which resulted from knowing that a very few hours would lake 
them for ever from the region where peril so treacherous might still 
be feared. 



CHAPTER L. 

On the night, or rather morning, in which old Juno returned to her 
hut after her laborious and futile progress among (he members of 
Edward's congregation, she Ihrew herself in moody disappointment on 
her bed, and lay there many hours moaning and lamenting herself 
most pileously. From the dreadful hour in which she saw r the last 
of that race, to whose idea she had clung wilhsuch pertinacious fana- 
ticism of love for more than fifty years — from lhat hour the image of ihe 
fair dead girl had never left her brain. The sight had not driven her 
mad, — she would have suffered less if it had; — but, though her already 
shattered reason was not totally overthrown by it, her passions had 
been roused to a degree of violence lhat rendered her reason, such as 
it was, but lillleable to struggle wilh them. 

It was grief, bilter but lender grief, which had bedewed the lovely 
corse wilh tears when first she made the terrible discovery; but from 
the moment she discovered, by the perusal of the letter that poor Selina 
left, how great a share the ever-detested Whitlaw had in the tragedy, 
every other sentiment was merged in a longing, anxious, desperate 
craving for revenge. She knew — no one so well, for she had made it 
her occupation lo watch him — how savage, how pitiful, how wanton 
had been his use of the power his weak and wicked patron had trusled 
to him. She knew lhat his very name was abhorred, and his approach 
shunned, almost as much from loathing as from fear. 



230 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

How, then, could she doubt that she should find agents to do her 
will? How could she conceive that her influence over the black peo- 
ple, so boundless as it seemed on every point on which she chose to 
use it, should fail in persuading them to do that which she believed 
their own wrongs would gladly lead ihem to underlake without her? 

But so it was; and this unexpected check to a purpose so fixed, a 
consummation which at one stroke she meant should atone for all the 
sufferings of her long and wretched life, curdled her blood, and left 
her in a slate as much more terrible than madness, as conscious agony 
is vihen compared to torpor. 

When the bright rays of the noonday-sun streamed through the 
narrow window of her hut, she rose as if by instinct, and opened her 
door to admit the air and light more freely. But she went not forth, 
as usual, into the populous fields, but sat down upon the ground, resting 
her back against the logs of her hut, and remained there uttering a low 
plaintive moan throughout the day. 

At night-fall, after her allotted labours were completed and her little 
girls fast asleep, Peggy walked over to visit her. It was rarely that so 
many hours passed without the old woman's coming to bestow some 
of her idleness in Peggy's wash-house; and, in addition to a friendly 
wish to know if illness had kept her at home, the proud but sorrowing 
mother of Phebe longed to talk to one, who knew so much as Juno, 
of the glory and happiness about to befall her child, as well as of the 
bitter grief it cost her. 

She found the old woman weak from want of food, and exhausted 
both in body and mind by the strong agony she had endured. With- 
out this friendly visit, and the aid administered during the course of 
it, it is probable that old Juno would not have survived that night. A 
morsel of bread, however, and a little dose of the universal panacea, 
rum, so far restored her, that she was able to speak of Phebe, her hopes 
and her happiness. 

' ■ Lament not for her going, woman ! — it would be less sinfully selfish 
were you to wish to feast upon her heart's blood, than to desire to 
keep her in this accursed land of whip and chains, and infamy — inno- 
cent infamy ! — infamy blacker than hell, and that no negro virtue can 
ever alone or wipe out !— You are no mother, Peggy, if you wish to 
to keep her here, only that you may look upon her shame and mi- 
sery." 

44 1 do not, Juno,— God knows I do not ; and I will bless you with 
my latest breath for having done this great thing for her." 

Juno accepted these thanks, and feft that she deserved them — and so 
far there was " excellent sympathy" between them. But not a word 
did the moody and miserable woman say to the patient Christian slave 
who so gratefully and assiduously attended her, of the dark wishes— 



JONATHAN JEFKEKSON WHITLAW. 331 

hopes perhaps no longer — over which her soul brooded ; for she 
shrewdly guessed tiiat she should find no sympathy for Ihem. But she 
listened patiently, if not with a very lively interest, to all the news that 
Peggy had to tell, among which the intended departure of the Blighs 
with the Steinmark family made a distinguished figure. 

M Is that true, Peggy?" said the old woman abruptly. 

" It wasmyPhebe told me so,— and she's not given to lying, Juno." 

11 If Phebe said it, it is true, and I thank God for it," replied Juno ; 
" though it is like thanking him for hiding from us the last gleam of 
light and hope (hat was left us. Yet I do thank God for it. Their 
young lives will be saved thereby, and the infernal wretch will thirst 
for their blood in vain." 

" What blood, Juno? — Come, get to bed ; — you shake and tremble, 
and your head seems wandering ; you have fasted too long to-day, 
Juno. Now Phebe is gone from us, I must leach my little Sally to 
come over for a spell every day to look after you : I am sure you've 
been a friend to me and mine, and you must not be neglected." 

" Thai's well, that's well, — thank ye, dear Peggy; and now go, 
and I will shut the door after you. I hope they will not come to me, 
— I would not see that pretty fair while girl again — no, it would drive 
me mad !" 

It was probably this dread of seeing Lucy, and of her bringing fresh 
to her mind again, as she had often done, the idea of her own beautiful 
descendants, which induced old Juno to refuse Ihem entrance when on 
the following day the brother and sister look her hut, in the circui! of 
farewell visiting which they made among the Chrislian part of the slave 
population of Paradise Plantation ; and this same feeling might have 
contributed, with other gloomy and unsocial thoughts, to keep her 
during the whole of the Sabbath day and night from all her usual 
haunts. 

But early on the Monday morning, almost before the sun was fully 
risen, her old habit of restlessness seemed to return upon her, and she 
rambled out into the dewy forest behind her hut, feeling refreshed and 
invigorated by the long-accustomed air and exercise from which she 
had for several days abstained. 

Either unconsciously, or it might be to meet the pleasant freshness 
of that open space, Juno directed her steps to the spot where but a few 
hours before Edward Bligh and his sister had so nearly lost their 
freedom or their lives. All was now profoundly still there, and she 
seated herself upon the stump of a tree, with her chin resting as here- 
tofore upon her faithful bamboo, meditating on the words of hope and 
patience, which she had so often heard the young preacher pronounce 
in that dark spot. 



33> LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

While Ihtis buried in thought, and as unconscious of the vicinity 
of human beings as if she had been alone in the universe, a sound like 
a distant shout startled her ear. 

"What is that?" said she, starling up; "are the fiends making 
holiday because the holy man is gone?" 

Another and another prolonged "hurrah!" found its way through 
the slill air, and onward and onward the fierce sound came. Juno 
felt slupified. The sun was even now but struggling through the 
morning misls, and (he very slaves were not as yet led out to labour. 
Then whence and from whom the sound, which, louder than the 
struggling multitudes of a great city could create, unless under cir- 
cumstances of some terrible excitement, now rolled along the startled 
solitude of the forest? 

A thought occurred to the aged negress that for a moment brought 
back as by the touch of enchantment all the strength and energy that 
she had lately lost. 

" They are in insurrection !" she exclaimed aloud in an accent of 
the wildest ecstasy: "Onward! onward! brave and desperate men! 
— onward! onward ! — We will join you, every soul of us, the whole 
five hundred! — Onward! onward!" and then added in a hollow 
whisper, — " Whillaw ! I shall have thee at last !" 

The sound of voices was now accompanied by that of numerous 
footsteps, and she felt that, be they what they might, in another mo- 
ment she would be in the midst of them unless she sought shelter 
within the numerous masses of underwood that surrounded the place. 
Sure as she felt that they were negroes and friends who approached, 
a mixture of caution and curiosity induced her to conceal herself while 
they passed, that she might thus at vantage look out upon their 
strength and learn their object. 

Such a shelter as she sought was easily found ; and trembling with 
eagerness and hope, old Juno ensconced herself behind a bush and 
awaited the result. 

She wailed not long. In front of the noisy throng marched four 
men, each holding high a pole, from whence projected transversely a 
piece of limber, connecting each with each; and from the frame thus 
formed, dangled the effigies of two men, evidently intended to represent 
the process of hanging. The one of these represented a man in the 
dress of a clergyman, the other bore the black visage of a negro. 

Disappointment had assailed poor Juno in so many ways, that it 
seemed, as she would have herself expressed it, to have become her 
natural food. She retained her situation till the whole of Edward's 
"Temple," as he was wont to call it, was completely filled with the 
lowest rabble of Natchez; and perceiving that they meant to make a 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 3*8 

halt there, she prepared to depart, certain that no noise she might 
make in doing so could reach the ears of those who were vociferating 
so vehemently themselves. 

Her purpose was, however, immediately changed when she* re- 
marked two or three men whose dress proclaimed them of a higher 
station in society than the rest, step forward from the crowd and pre- 
pare to harangue them. 

One of these she instantly recognised as Whitlaw ; and another of 
Ihem was Uogslown, with whose person she was also well acquainted. 
It was Whitlaw who addressed the parly first. His speech was 
violent, and by no means badly calculated to inflame the passions of a 
while mob, in a country where no night closes in without a thrilling 
fear that ere morning their wretched, feared, and haled slaves should 
rise in muliny and lake a bloody vengeance for all they had suffered. 
He asserted broadly, that numerous gangs of slaves had recenliy been 
urged to insurrection and indiscriminate murder of the white popu- 
lation by harangues uttered on the very spot where they then stood, 
by a fanatic advocate for emancipation called Bligh, supported, pro- 
tected, and seconded by a German family of abolitionists called 
Sleinmark. 

"These, my friends," he concluded, — "these base white instiga- 
tors, unworthy of their colour and their station, must be the objects 
of your just vengeance. Yourselves, your wives, your children are 
not to be murdered with impunity by the ignorant black nigger agents 
of these Blighs and Steinmarks, without due vengeance taken on Iheir 
treacherous heads. — I must here leave you, my friends; but you 
know my feelings, and you know my power. My friend Mr. Hog- 
stown, who has accompanied you thus far, will explain to you better 
than I can do the nature of the duly you are upon — and also the zeal 
and liberality with which it shall be not only protected, but req'iiled." 
This speech, which had been got up with very considerable care 
from various sources of popular eloquence, was listened to and wel- 
comed with the greatest enthusiasm. 

Whitlaw then retreated towards his home; and Hogstown came 
forward and took his place. His speech was more extemporaneous, 
and considerably less decorated with any figures of rhetoric, save those 
of slang; but he rushed with great spirit inlo the middle of his subject 
at once, giving the most precise instructions how they were to proceed 
after arriving at Reichiand. 

Old Juno, whose seventy odd years had brought not the slightest 
injury to the sense of hearing, which in her survived in its full acule- 
ness every other, here gave the most earnest attention to the speaker's 
words — and they were words of terror. Edward Bligh and the vene- 
rable Steinmark were marked for public ignominy and death; the two 



334 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

young women that would be found with them were on no account to 
be suffered to depart, but made prisoners, and commitled to the hands 
of their noble friend and patron Mr. Whillaw ; while the young Stein- 
marks, who were likely to make a mischievous and obstinate resistance, 
were to be mown down indiscriminately, without giving quarter to 
any of them. 

Mr. Hogstown then began to dilate at considerable length on the 
Subject of pillage : his instructions were at once liberal and minute, 
and seemed calculated to give satisfaction to all. 

Old Juno seized this opportunity to escape from her retreat. Spite 
of age and greatly increased infirmity, every nerve was now braced to 
the enterprise of reaching Reichland before the mob. Her inequality 
in point of strength was terrible, but in some other respects she had 
greatly the advantage of her powerful competitors. She knew 

" Each lane, and every alley green, 

Dingle or bushy dell, of that wild wood, 
And every bosky bourn from side to side, 
Her daily walks, and ancient neighbourhood." 

And she knew that the beaten path into which they would infallibly 
fall soon after leaving this remote and abandoned clearing would lead 
them indeed to Reichland, but by a wide and beaten waggon-track, at 
least twice as long as that she should trace by going across a small 
morass, which afforded safe treading, however, for one who knew it 
as well as she did. 

With an energy which seemed to herself like inspiration she setoff, 
and far from having overrated the advantage her knowledge of the 
ground would give, she reached the house ere the head of the advanc- 
ing squadron had arrived half way to it. But what a scene greeted 
her! — The whole family, with their two remaining servants (for the 
Germans had all been sent forward with the baggage), and guests were 
assembled upon the lawn, wailing for the horses which Caesar was in 
the very act of bringing round to fasten to the waggon into which the 
laughing Lolte had already sprung. Hope and happiness shone in 
every eye, till even Edward's seemed to catch a mild reflection of it. 

The old woman appeared to have lost the power of speaking by the 
rapid pace at which she had walked, — she stood still when she got into 
the midst of them, and wrung her hands. There was not. one of 
them who did not believe that she was there to bid them an affectionate 
but melancholy farewell. Phebe, only, saw something in her manner 
that seemed in its agony beyond any sorrow she could feel at parting, 
and hastily leaving the packages she was abnil to place in the waggon, 
on the grass beside it, she approached her old friend, and seizing her 
hands, said hastily — "Juno! Juno! speak, for God's sake! — What 
have you got to sayV" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 335 

44 Murder! murder!" replied the poor old woman, panting most 
painfully ; " they will all be murdered within twenty minutes if they 
do not hide or fly 1" 

" Master! master!" shrieked Phebe, "come and hear her! — 
Master Edward ! fly ! — It is you ! it is you !" 

"It is nil," cried Juno, recovering her voice so as to be hoard by 
every one of them ; " a hideous mob is on the road to destroy you all : 
Edward, Edward Bligh is their first object — then the good Steinmark 
— then the women — then the young comely sons — all ! all !" 

11 Oh ! were it only me !" cried Edward in dreadful agony. 

" How near are they, Juno?" said Frederick Steinmark, looking 
pale, but in a voice of perfect composure. 

" It may be at a distance of half a mile." 

■* Hermann," resumed the father, M you are swift of foot, — fly 
quickly, and bring Clio Whitlavv hither : say only it is I who want 
her. — Caesar, put to the horses instantly ; Lotte, do not stir ; Mary, 
Lucy, Phebe, get into the waggon, and you, Edward, with them. 
Drive Caesar, to the back gale of Whillaw's premises, and wait for 
me there." 

The women were in the waggon in an instant, but Edward lingered. 
Frederick gave him a look as stern as his countenance could assume, 
and said, " Edward ! will you delay us ?" 

The unhappy young man obeyed ; but in doing so, tasted the bit- 
terest pang of his painful life. " That he, — he, who as his heart told 
him was the cause of all, — that he, in the sight of the woman he loved, 
should be thus forced to shelter himself beside her, while her father, 
lover, brothers, were left to encounter danger, caused by him !" — he 
might have exclaimed with truth, as he hid his head between his 
hands, " The bitterness of death is past !" 

They had hardly proceeded ten steps, when Clio came running to 
meet them. Steinmark seized her arms, in a manner at once to com- 
mand her attention, and to prevent her beginning a siring of questions 
that might not speedily finish. 

"My good Clio," said he, "we are beset by a deadly peril — such as 
yourself predicted. A mob from Natchez is within a few minutes' 
distance of our house. Will you save these heipless women, Clio, by 
concealing them in the loft in which your goods are stowed?" 

"Will J? — Oh, Jesus, yes! And if they kill me instead, what 
matters, Mr. Steinmark? One can die but once. — But wait a spell, for 
the love of God. Sister Whitlaw isn't up yet, that's jam ; and brother's 
away for his hitlers to the Eagle : but the niggers — you must bide 
while I send the niggers oil, some one way, some another ; mustn't I?" 

" No, Clio. The waggon with the women is already at the gate of 
your yard ; hasten then, good Clio, and place them, and the poor 



336 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

youth .with them, as best you can, — your premises will not be sus- 
pected ; and I will speak to your slaves." 

Steinmark, his sons, and the young Sigismond then proceeded in a 
body to the Mount Etna mansion, about which many negroes, both 
male and female, were employed. Frederick called them round him, 
and in few words told them that a mob from Natchez, determined to 
execute Lynch-law upon him and his family in consequence of their 
known hatred to slavery, were now within a few paces of his house. 
" Your good mistress Clio is willing to conceal our women if possible; 
— " will you betray us?*' 

" No, massa! — no, niggers die first!" was the impressive reply. 

"Now then, Caesar, drive the waggon back, and appear to be 
packing the furniture in it; and when you are questioned, say thai the 
family are gone. And now, my sons," continued Frederick addressing 
Sigismond also as one of them, "I think the dearer part of ourselves 
is safe. Young Whillaw is at the bottom of this, depend upon it ; and 
the mob, paid probably by him, will not be likely to attack the 
warehouse of his lather. As for ourselves, I do not believe it possible 
Ihey would seek to take our lives; and our best course will be, I think, 
lo walk into the woods in a contrary direction to that which leads to 
Natchez. They will be long occupied in examining and pilfering the 
house ; and, by the help of our local knowledge here, it is very likely 
that we shall not encounter them." 

As he spoke, the whole parly moved rapidly on in the direction he 
pointed out; and by the lime the bearers of the gallows had reached the 
lawn at Reichland, ail ihose they came to seek there had disappeared. 

Old Juno had placed herself on the ground as soon as she saw the 
family depart, for at that moment all power lo stand seemed lo for- 
sake her; but when she remarked the well-assumed air of busy indif- 
ference with which Ccesar appeared lo be employing himself about the 
waggon, she got up and joined him in his employment. 

It must be observed, that on all occasions when Lynch-law is admi- 
nistered, the real instigators never appear. It passes for the work of 
p ass i on — a sense of injury — or overwrought enthusiasm on the part of 
the people; but never as the concerted project of a set of men, who, 
finding the laws incapable of giving authority as uncompromising as 
they wish to the iniquitous system which they are determined lo 
pursue, though their country should fall to pieces in the struggle, have 
devised this appalling means lo work their will. Even Hogslown, 
therefore, though only himself an agent acting as the spring lo set this 
terrific machine in motion,, had disappeared ; and the throng rushed 
onward with no leader but their whim and their will, and no command 
to obey beyond a general standing order lo pillage, slay, and destroy to 
the best of their power. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAVV. 337 

I 

''What! jest going to start, by G — d!" exclaimed a fellow who 
walked beside the gallows with a rope in his hand, as if in readiness to 
put in practice upon a real man the operation already performed on the 
straw figures dangling from the frame which his 'companions bore 
along. " Stop! you nigger — quit, if you please, handling our pro- 
perty ; bide still, you old black rag, and get out of the way — or may- 
be, slave as you are, you may be crushed as slick as if you were a 
canting white. — Now then, my boys ! One brave shout before we set 
to — hurrah !" 

" Hurrah !" screamed the multitude ; and in the next moment they 
were half suffocating each other in their efforts to pass through the 
doors and windows of the house in search of their prey. 

"Had we best bide their coming out again, mother?" said Caesar. 

"Yes, Caesar," replied the old woman firmly. " They never spill 
slave blood if they can help it, because, as they say, it costs money ; 
and we have nothing to do but answer their questions. Remember — 
the whole family set off for the wharf at Natchez by the round-about 
waggon-road just two hours ago." 

" Good !" answered Caesar composedly; " I shan't blunder." 

The two slaves then remained stationed very quietly, as if waiting 
for orders; Juno leaning against the end of the waggon, and Caesar ca- 
ressing the horses' heads with an air of the greatest indifference as to 
what those orders should be. 

In a few minutes, the rioters, amounting to at least sixty or seventy 
men, poured out again from the house upon the lawn, and Caesar and 
the old woman immediately became the centre of the throng. 

' * Where are all the d n rogues and rascals belonging to this here 

house?" began the inquirer who screamed loudest. "You'd best be 
after telling us at once, you niggers, or we'll have your brains out, if 
we're obligated to have a subscription among us afterwards to pay 
for ye." 

"I'll tell all I know, gentlemen," said Caesar; " and I can tell no 
more if you cut me in slices." 

1 ' Well ! that's a fact at any rate. Speak then, sheep's head, — where 
are they all got to?" 

"They must be, as nearly as I can guess, gentlemen, ten miles out 
of twelve of the big waggon-road to Natchez. The Deerborn is as light 
as a feather, and they've got the young baron's fine pair of horses." 

"And how in the devil's name did they hear we were coming that 
long ago?" said one. 

" Not possible !" cried another, "for we didn't hardly know as we 
was to start ourselves by then." 

" God love ye, gentlemen !" said Caesar, grinning with a look of 
admirable ease and fun, " they knowed no more about you than the 

22 



338 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

man in the moon, or maybe they wouldn't have gone Natchez way, 
I'm thinking." 

" D — d true that too," cried a shrewd fellow who was beginning to 
handle some of the packages; "and you, I expect, Master Mungo, 
was to follow 'em with the rest of their plunder?" 
" Yes, sir," replied Caesar very civilly. 

" Then we're stumpt pretty considerable, I expect," observed the 
gentleman who bore the rope. 

" I vote for setting fire to the premises," said one; — " I don't like 
to be had out this way for nothing." 

"That's a fact," answered his neighbour; "and if we make a 
blaze and an uproar, we shall get the Spanish wheels at any rate." 

" To it, then !" cried many voices at once. "Go to the kitchen 
hearth, you old crocodile, and fetch us a brand ; and you too, Mungo 
— scamper to save your life." 

Caesar darted off like an arrow ; while Juno followed him at the 
best pace she could, assailed as she went by abuse, shouts of laughter, 
and any light articles at hand that could without much trouble be 
thrown after her. 

Caesar's quick return, with a glowing brand in each hand, and 
showing his teeth from ear to ear, did much, not only towards securing 
his own safety, but in removing all doubts as to the truth of his state- 
ment. 

" He'd never be so ready and slick to burn down the house if he 
expected 'em back again, that's a faot," observed a fellow who had 
seized one of the firebrands from his hand. And in truth the safety 
of the negroes was fully secured, and their very existence forgotten in 
the excitement which followed. The most combustible articles of 
furniture were rapidly collected together from various rooms by a dozen 
active hands, and piled together in the middle of the large sitting- 
room ; and to this the fire was applied. The blaze was as rapid and as 
destructive as the most zealous of these ministers of justice could 
desire, and the dry and abundant woodwork of the building soon 
became one continuous fabric of blazing fire. 

Far and near the forest glowed in the high and flaring light. 
Fragments of rafters fell scattered in all directions from the roof; the 
light fences caught the flame, which literally seemed to " run along 
upon the ground," till they reached the barns and outbuildings, that in 
a few seconds added their wooden and easily ignited materials to the 
spreading conflagration. 

Clio meanwhile had performed the duty required of her with that 
eager sort of effective activity which the heart only can inspire. The 
trembling females followed each other with the feverish haste of terror 
up the stairs leading to the ware-room — all but Lucy Bligh. She 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 339 

watched her brother's eye, and fancied that she saw in it a wild wish of 
escaping from the oppressive safety of this enforced retreat. 

" I will not mount, Edward !" she said ; " I will not put my foot 
upon the stair till I see you walk before me." 

For an instant only he hesitated, and then obeyed the command, 
which even in that terrible moment he felt proceeded from a purpose 
more fixed and settled than his own. 

The wide chamber, half filled with lumbering cases, some still 
unpacked, and others emptied of their various contents, offered as 
favourable an opportunity for concealment as it is well possible to ima- 
gine, and it required no great ingenuity for the whole party so to have 
disposed themselves as to leave no trace of their presence there to any 
one who might accidentally enter. 

"The shorter I bide the better," said the good Clio, retreating. 
"Keep quiet, dears, and you'll be safe enough, I'll answer for it; but 
don't look out of them windows that side, 'cause it looks t'wards the 
Eagle. That big door at the end is t'wards your place, Lotte dear, 
and there's nothing to see you there, if you've a mind to peep ; but 
don't open it only a bit, you know." 

She descended the stairs as she spoke, and they heard her lock and 
double-lock the door at the foot of them. 

For the first few minutes that followed their imprisonment, the 
women gazed in each other's faces in a manner that seemed to say, 

" Look I as pale as you ? " 

but not a word was spoken, nor a movement made. By degrees, how- 
ever, the statues seemed gradually returning to life — Edward looked 
by far the most wretched of the party. 

In another moment Lotte was employing herself in arranging a seat 
at once comfortable and concealed from view ; and when it was com- 
pleted, she took her mother's hand and silently led her to it. 

Poor Mary , however, who was in no state of mind to be comfortable, 
shook her head as if to refuse it,— but she looked in Lotte's face and 
yielded. 

Lotte herself then crept to the side of Lucy, and throwing her arms 
round her, buried her face in her bosom to hide the tears that would 
flow. The miserable Edward withdrew himself to a distant part of the 
wide loft, and placed himself in such a position, that his face was un- 
seen by any. 

Phebe was the only one of the party who availed herself of Clio's 
hint, that she might without danger reconnoitre the space that lay be- 
tween Mount Etna and Reichland, by cautiously unclosing the wooden 
shutter which secured — not a window, for there was no glass in it — but 

22" 



340 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

a sort of door-way, that opened in that direction, and which was occa- 
sionally used for hoisting goods too bulky to be carried up the stairs. 

After yielding for a few moments to a weakness which both felt to 
be wrong, the two girls approached Mary, and sitting down on the floor 
beside her, rested their heads upon their knees. She threw an arm 
round each, and softly whispered the consoling observation that no 
sounds were heard approaching. 

At this moment Phebe, who had continued peeping through an aper- 
ture of half an inch wide, which was all she would venture to open, 
suddenly uttered a fearful shriek, and then exclaimed, "Oh, God 
have mercy on us ! — all the whole world's on fire!" She clasped her 
hands as she spoke, and the heavy shutter fell back flat against the 
wall, making the whole loft glow with the reflection of the blaze that 
burst from every window at Reichland. 

The terror of being discovered, which a moment before had made 
them fearful of whispering to each other, yielded before the sudden 
panic of this frightful spectacle, and Mary and the two girls uttered a 
fearful cry. Edward rushed to the opening, and gazed at the sight with 
a species of misery that was all his own — no human being could con- 
ceive or share it. 

The dreadful idea occurred to Lotte, that the mob had seized upon 
the gentlemen, and having secured them in the house, had taken this 
dreadful means to destroy them. With a countenance (hat spoke with 
sufficient plainness the agony she felt, she wrung her hands, exclaiming 
in a voice of piercing anguish, " Oh, father ! father ! — Sigismond ! — 
Brothers 1 — All perishing 1" 

Edward gazed at her working features. For one wild moment he 
fixed his eyes immovably upon her face, then rushed to the open door- 
way and sprung through it to the ground. 

Lucy saw, or rather felt what his purpose was the moment he 
moved, and threw herself forward to cross his path ; but she was too 
late, and Phebe seeing her still moving onward, and thinking she 
would precipitate herself after him, seized the shutter, and with great 
presence of mind, closed it ; then placing her back against it, she said, 
" You shall kill me first, Miss Lucy." 

No voice was heard in that first moment of horror ; all believed that 
he must have perished by the fall . It was Lucy who first found power 
to speak ; but the voice was not her own, it sounded hollow and un- 
natural — "Look out! — Phebe! — look out! — look down upon the 
earth and tell me if he is there." 

Phebe no longer feared for any desperate act on the part of Lucy 
that might hazard her life ; she feared only for her reason ; and with- 
out uttering a word of caution or delay which might irritate her, she 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 311 

hastened to obey her, again threw open the shutter, and, sick and 
shuddering, gave a glance below. 

" Thanks be to God, he has escaped, Miss Lucy ! — It is not so high, 
my dearest mistress, as we thought it was ; sit down again and wait — 
for wait we must — he is gone to find out news for us." 

The relief of knowing thatEdward had not perished by his desperate 
leap was certainly great ; they all felt it, and for a moment they were 
cheered by it ; but the next, all the agony of terror came back upon 
them. — Where was begone? — How would he conceal himself from 
his desperate enemies? — Why was that fire burning so fiercely? — 
Who might have perished there ? 

Such were the questions which each asked the other, but there were 
none of answer. At last Phebe said, " Why should I be shut up here 
for ? Slaves are never murdered in this way — for whoever kills a slave 
is obliged to pay money for it. — They won't kill me, Miss Lucy, I do 
not fear them — I do not fear even for Caesar ; but I fear for you — I 
fear for you all, kind and good ! if you stay much longer here without 
knowing news of those you love, it will kill you or drive you mad. I 
must get out, mistress," continued the determined girl, addressing 
Mary : " if you will help me with your hands, I can do it in safety." 

''And what do you propose to do, Phebe, when you are out?" said 
her mistress. 

"I must do as the time bids me," replied Phebe ; "but I can go and 
come — I know I can — and I can bring you tidings before you die for 
the want of them." 

They all felt that she was right, and that if indeed she could descend 
with safety on the ground, there was little doubt but that she would be 
able with little risk to relieve them at her return from their intolerable 
uncertainty respecting the fate of their friends. 

" Do you see this roll of domestic?" said Phebe, removing as she 
spoke the cord that bound fifty yards of stout cotton cloth into a tight 
roll. " If among you, my dear mistresses, you can but manage to hold 
or to fasten this piece of dry goods firm so that I might let myself 
down gently by one end of it, I should be as safe as you are." 

The ingenuity of the anxious women soon enabled them to arrange 
Phebe's contrivance in a manner that seemed to render it very to- 
lerably secure, and the intrepid and active girl contrived by their as- 
sistance to reach the ground without injury. 

The linen was drawn up and the shutter closed after her, but ever 
and anon an anxious eye peeped out upon the wood. The trees, how- 
ever, prevented much of the interval between the two farms from 
being visible ; but they could at least ascertain from time to time that 
no one was approaching. The fire continued to throw up at intervals 
above the trees large columns of smoke and flame ; but the flight of 



342 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Edward, and the danger he must necessarily be exposed to, su- 
perseded at this moment every other terror. 

We must leave them in this state of terrible uncertainty to follow 
Phebe in her search. 



CHAPTER LI. 

As soon as Phebe found herself safely on her feet, her first care 
was to get into the nearest and thickest part of the wood, that the 
direction in which she was going might not be traced. She then pro- 
ceeded as swiftly as the bushes into which she had entered would 
permit, towards Reichland. The flaming pile might have directed 
her course, had the pathless thicket she had chosen, been more in- 
tricate still; and ere she had proceeded towards it for many minutes, 
the sound of distant but clamorous voices came upon her ear. For a 
moment she stood still, for she felt how terrible might be the scene to 
which she was drawing near. She thought that if Caesar could see 
her thus rashly approaching a multitude of desperate men, he would 
blame her for it, and say she had not thought of him. But she did 
think of him, and the hope of learning how it fared with him was one 
among the many feelings which urged her to undertake this terrible 
embassy. The uproar appeared so violent as she reached the end of 
the copse surrounding the lawn, that ere she emerged from it, she 
held counsel with herself whether some better and safer scheme might 
not be devised for learning what was going on, and what had become 
of Caesar, of the gentlemen, and above all, of Master Edward, than 
thus exposing herself to the brutal insolence of the multitude whose 
voices reached her from the other side of the house. 

While she stood thus doubtfully, a new outcry — a fresh burst of 
popular feeling, a wild sound that seemed to partake of triumph and 
surprise, came shrilly and keenly to her ear. 

" They have got him ! — they have seized him ! — they have seized 
Master Edward!" cried Phebe in an agony ; and falling on her knees, 
she prayed aloud — " God, have mercy on him ! Kind and gentle 
— good and holy man ! — God, have mercy on him \" 

More anxious than ever to know all, yet totally incapable of braving 
the sight which she felt certain would meet her if she did but turn the 
corner of the building before her, Phebe remained helpless and sob- 
bing upon her knees, her head resting against a tree, and all the spirit 
and courage of her character prostrate and gone. Her senses did not 
fail her, but a sort of torpor came over them which seemed to blunt 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHIT LAW. 'Mi 

her feelings, and though her tears flowed fast, she at last hardly knew 
for what. 

In this state Caesar found her. She started in terror at the sound 
of a footstep ; and when she raised her eyes to look at him, she had 
not at the Grst glance the slightest idea who it was. 

It is only those who are familiar with the negro countenance who 
can understand how a negro can turn pale, and sneers have been often 
produced by the expression among such as know not what it means ; 
but those who do, need not be told that the aspect of the negro under 
circumstances which produce this bloodless effect is ghastly in the 
extreme. 

Such was the aspect of Caesar as his countenance met the eye of 
Phebe, and he trembled so exceedingly as to be perfectly incapable of 



"Caesar!" she exclaimed, as she recognised his beloved features 
— " oh, Caesar! — is it over? Have they dipped their hands in his 
blood?" 

But Caesar answered not, and his breast heaved so convulsively that 
the poor girl threw her arms round him, saying, " Oh, Caesar, cry, as 
I do ; — let the tears come, Caesar, or it will kill you 1" 

Caesar did weep, and it relieved the bodily anguish under which he 
was suffering ; but there was that at his heart which not even the in- 
fluence of Phebe could in that hour assuage or soften. 

" Will you not, for my sake, speak at once?" said Phebe, reproach- 
fully.—" Caesar ! have they murdered Edward Bligh?" 

Large drops of agony broke out upon the iorehead of Caesar, — he 
groaned, and beat his breast distractedly. "Phebe!" he cried at 
length, " I wish it had been another : don't be angry, my poor girl — 
but with my whole soul I wish it had been me !" 

" Oh, my Miss Lucy!" sobbed Phebe, " who is it will tell her of 
it ? — Not I, not I, — no, if I never see her more, I will not stand up 
before her and tell her they have killed him." 

"No one shall tell her of it — no one can tell her of it," replied 
Caesar; "let her believe or fancy what she will, but no one shall tell 
her that her dear gentle brother was murdered by the hands of ruf- 
fians." 

" Caesar!" said Phebe, shaking from head to foot, " did you see 
him die?'' 

" No, I did not ! — I turned away and ran, Phebe, to hide my head, 
where I could neither see nor hear him." 

****** * 

The dreadful scene from which the faithful slave turned sickening 
away was one which the historian would gladly shrink from describ- 



344 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

ing ; but such things 'have been, nor could the narration of it be 
softened or omitted without destroying the fidelity of the "sketch." 

When the unhappy Edward, to escape the intense misery of wit- 
nessing Lotte's agonies, sprang in a sort of frenzy from the loft, he 
reached the ground in safety, and with no fixed purpose but a sort of 
vague feeling that his mission was to seek for Steinmark, his sons, 
and the loved Sigismond, he ran swiftly towards the flames that he 
saw blazing before him through the trees. 

A very few moments brought him before the smoking pile that once 
had been the happy home of the Steinmarks. The idea that the fright- 
ful ruin wrought there was his work, had taken such hold upon him 
that he became incapable of mixing any other with it, and he stood 
gazing at the dreadful spectacle, perfectly unconscious that a gang of 
savage, lawless, hired assassins, who were there only to seek his life, 
stood within a hundred yards of him. 

For a minute or two he remained there perfectly unnoticed : the 
object upon which his own eyes were fixed occupied the eyes of all, 
and he might have come and viewed the conflagration, and retired 
again with perfect safety, had such been his will. At last the eye of 
some individual in the crowd was caught by the figure of the solitary 
man who stood before the flaming trophy of their triumph as if turned 
to stone. 

" That chap don't seem to admire our work anyhow," said he, 
touching the arm of his neighbour and pointing to Edward. 

' ' And who is he as dares find fault with it ? — I should like to be 
told that. 'Twill be as well to ask him, I expect. Come along, will 
ye, and jest let's ask him what's his objection." 

The pair accordingly walked deliberately up to Edward, and de- 
manded his name. 

" My name is Edward Bligh," was the unhesitating reply. 

li The devil it is ! " roared both the men at once, and, by a com- 
mon impulse, at the same instant stretched their murderous hands to- 
wards him and held him fast till the whole rout rushed in a body to- 
wards him, and with savage yells proclaimed their joy at having found 
him. 

"A fig for the Dutchman and all his race! " roared one among 
them ; " they may go and be d — d ! — here's the hero for us." 

" The rope ! the rope," halloed another; " toss the effigies into the 
flames, my lads — here's the real stuff for hanging ! " 

It was at this dreadful moment that poor Caesar, who, the better to 
enact the part of an indifferent spectator, had stood loungingly watch- 
ing the flames and leaning against the shaft of the waggon, uttered the 
wild cry of a madman and rushed into the wood. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 345 

The scene that followed his retreat was soon brought to its horrible 
conclusion. Some of the wretches present dragged their victim with 
most unneedful violence towards a tree, on which a rope was instantly 
fixed, amidst shouts and cries of savage jubilee. 

As they drew near the fatal spot, the gentle unresisting martyr 
raised his eyes to heaven, and uttered aloud with fervent faith and 
hope, ' ' Father and Saviour ! receive my soul ! " But even as he spoke 
a wretch seized on his throat, and sought to stifle the prayer ere it was 
uttered. 

Edward spoke no more, and resigned his spirit as pure and un- 
tainted by the stains of earth as if he had breathed it back to heaven 
the hour he received it. 

Such was the death his foreboding spirit had frequently predicted, 
and such the exit that in his gloomier moments he had wished for. 
And even when it came upon him in all its actual and unimagined hor- 
rors, he probably felt that it only fulfilled a destiny he had no wish to 
change, for no glance betrayed the slightest feeling of fear, no move- 
ment indicated resistance or regret. 

Their impious task performed, the savage mob withdrew as rapidly 
as they had approached ; and within ten minutes after the murder was 
committed, not a straggler remained near the spot. 

One living being only watched the whole ; and when the solemn 
stillness of solitude and death succeeded to the din that for one fatal 
hour had echoed through the peaceful woods of Reichland, one living 
being only remained to gaze upon the ruin that had been wrought. 

Old Juno, safe in her helpless, worthless decrepitude, had continued 
unseen or unheeded by any. When the fire burst forth from the 
windows, she retreated to a vine-covered shed which stood at some 
distance from the house, and which had once been Lotte's dairy, and 
seated herself on a log beside it. It was near this shed that the fear- 
ful deed was consummated, and without moving an inch from the 
post she had taken, the wretched woman watched the tragedy to its 
close. 

When all was over and everything profoundly still, Juno remained 
for some time longer without moving, as if to be quite sure that no 
straggler of the demon-rout was left behind. And then she rose, and 
giving one long steady look at the stiffening corse, while silent vows 
of vengeance seemed to bind up her heart and brain like ribs of iron, 
she followed the direction she had seen Caesar take into the wood, and 
almost at the verge of it, and long before she had hoped to meet with 
him, she came to the spot where he and Phebe were weeping together. 

" Is it over, mother?" cried Caesar with streaming eyes and 
trembling lips. — " Say — is my dear, dear master in peace?" 



Ml LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

" Edward Bligh is in heaven," replied the old woman solemnly — 
" as surely as his tormentors will be in " 

"Oh! speak not, speak not words that our sainted master would 
not like to hear/' said Phebe, shuddering. " May God have mercy 
on all sinful souls! It was thus he taught me to pray, Juno ; and as 
he taught me, so will I pray to my dying day ! " 

Juno answered not, but turning to Caesar, said, " For the dead we 
can do nothing ; — for the unhappy living — for that poor young thing 
that loved him so, — his poor orphan sister " 

The old woman stopped, for her voice failed her. "I did not 
think," said she after a moment's silence, "that I should ever shed 
another tear. And you, poor fellow ! I thought, Caesar, that sor- 
row war-not in your nature. But listen to me, my good lad : you 
must not mourn for him in idleness. Have you any knowledge where 
they may all be found I " 

" The women are all at old Whitlaw's," answered Caesar; — " and 
I do not think the rest are far away. My new master said, as he told 
me to drive the waggon back, that he thought they might lie concealed 
within the woods." 

" That is good hearing," replied Juno, " for they are wanted here. 
— Seek for them, Caesar — they may come back in safety." 

Caesar set off on this commission with a light foot and heavy heart ; 
and then Juno, turning to the weeping Phebe, inquired how and why 
she had left her ladies. 

The history was soon told, and the poor girl concluded it with a 
fresh burst of grief, saying, " Juno, Juno, how shall I ever face her ? 
— how shall I live to tell her the horrid, horrid truth?" 

"You never can, Phebe, — you never must, you never shall! — 
Spare her young heart the never-ending horror of knowing how he 
died. Let her believe that his rash leap destroyed him, — that will be 
pain enough — yet it will spare her much." 

"It was that leap destroyed him," cried Phebe, wringing her hands ; 
— "and it was I unclosed the door. Oh, God! oh, God!— perhaps 
he had now been living if I had not done that ! — Is not that dreadful, 
Juno?" 

" It is idle talking, Phebe,— his life lay not in your silly hands, 
poor child. Comfort his sister, Phebe ; — be loving and faithful to her 
all your life, and never, never let her know that the poor sainted boy 
was murdered." 

Phebe promised with her very heart upon her lips to obey these 
words ; and then they whiled away two weary hours of waiting, in 
talking of the motives that had sent forth the desperate band who had 
brought destruction and murder to that peaceful spot. 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 347 

" I know it all! " cried Juno, wilh her wonted energy,— " I know 

the mainspring that has moved it all; and if I find not means," 

Then stopping short, she burst into a strange discordant laugh that 
sounded frightfullyt o Phebe's ears. 

" You know not why I laugh, Phebe?— Then I must tell you. He 
has burnt out himself !— Whitlaw— the dastard murderer Whit- 
law, who kills some by insult and some by the help of hired assassins, 
—he knew not, Phebe, that the German's house and goods made part of 
his new wealth — and so he burnt it." 

The welcome sound of Frederick Steinmark's voice made Phebe 
turn her head, and at the distance of a hundred yards those they so 
anxiously waited for were seen approaching. 



CHAPTER LII. 

The old and the young negress rose together from the ground, and 
stood before the gentlemen in silence t Tears not to be restrained fell 
from the eyes of Phebe, while the old woman looked as if years 
and sorrow had dried and withered her into a state too hard to suffer 
more. 

Frederick Steinmark stopped when he saw them ; and the four awe- 
struck young men who had followed him while he walked on, listening 
to Caesar's dreadful tale, now came up, and surrounded the women, 
hoping to hear from Phebe some tidings of the unhappy prisoners in 
the loft. But the poor girl's account only amounted to the assurance 
that she had left them in a condition little able to endure what was to 
fall upon them. 

" My Miss Lucy will die too," sobbed Phebe, "if she hears the 
truth — the whole ghastly dreadful truth ! — Oh, master !" she added, 
turning to Frederick Steinmark, " what will you please to say to her ? 
— what will you have me say?" 

"First," cried Karl, pressing eagerly forward, " first let us inter 
her murdered brother. Say nothing — tell nothing — let no one go to 
her till this be done. — Oh, father! should Lucy Bligh rush out and 
look upon him — " 

" She shall not look upon him, Karl. — You are right; — wretched as 
they are, none must go near*them till the earth covers him." 

The hearts of the stout Germans trembled as they followed old Juno 
to the fatal spot. They had to pass the smouldering ruins of the 
house that for so many peaceful years had been their home. But the 



348 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

sight caused no emotion ; — the thought of Edward, so P voung, so in- 
tellectual, so holy, so beloved, brought to a bloody grave, filled every 
avenue to feeling, and they walked over their trampled and disfigured 
lawn, so often and so lately the scene of their sports and gambols, 
without one single image of the past rising to mix with the overwhelm- 
ing sorrow of the present hour. 

Phebe had followed with the rest ; but her heart failed her, and 
stopping short before they turned the corner that would give the object 
she dared not look upon to her sight, she sat down upon the ground 
and covered her face with her apron. 

When they reached the spot, the eyes of all were fixed upon the 
earth. None seemed to have courage to raise them to what they knew 
would meet them. 

" It must be done," said Juno sternly. " Remember his young 
sister : leave not that which you all dread to look upon, to blast 
her eyes." 

The remonstrance was not lost, and the motive she suggested made 
their task more easy than any other could have done. 

" Caesar, my poor fellow, stand here and receive the body," said 
Frederick. ■ ' Hermann or Karl, one of you must climb the tree. But 
no !" he cried, suddenly recollecting himself, and gently pushing the 
trembling negro aside ; " you shall not, Caesar. Go, go, poor boy! 
It is too hard a trial." 

The young men all stepped forward ; but Caesar at that moment 
forgot he was a slave, and speaking for the first time, since they had 
reached the spot, he said in a tone of command. 

" No ! none other, none but me — no other hand shall touch him !" 

If an emperor had spoken, obedience could not have been rendered 
more respectfully. All stood aside ; Karl cut the hateful knot, and 
the body of Edward dropped into the arms of his poor slave. 

For a moment he seemed to hold it in a fond embrace ; then letting 
it sink gently on the ground, he lay down beside it, kissed the pale 
lips, parted the dark curls upon the fair young brow, reverently 
pressed down the open eyelids, and uttered, as he did it, such deep and 
piteous moans, that no eye looked upon him unmoistened by a tear. 

" He shall not lie here, Caesar," said Frederick Sleinmark, — " not 
here, where the felon feet of his murderers have rendered the sod ac- 
cursed. We will carry him to the spot where he first opened to me 
his noble, generous, and most innocent heart. The place was Lotte's 
bower : it is not likely they have entered there, for the spot is shel- 
tered from all eyes. Cut down some boughs, Henrich ; we will all be 
his bearers." 

No one spoke in reply ; but the alacrity with which the order was 
obeyed told plainly that the feeling which dictated the removal was 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 340 

shared by all. When the leafy bier was ready, Caesar raised the body 
in his arms, and laid it, as tenderly as a mother might lay her sleeping 
child, upon the boughs. The father Steinmark supported the head, 
and the four young men placed themselves at the four corners. No one 
seemed to think that Caesar had any farther duty to perform — he fol- 
lowed more as the chief mourner than the slave of Edward ; and when 
the sad procession passed the spot where Phebe had remained, Juno, 
who had sought and joined her there, took her by the hand and led 
her after it. Thus the unhappy race for whose eternal welfare he 
had hazarded and lost his life, furnished, as they ought, his funeral 
train. 

The grave was quickly dug, for there were many hands to aid the 
work ; and when for one sad moment they relaxed in their labour, 
and, as if by common consent, stood gazing on the pale form that lay 
beside them, Juno urged them to continue, by saying, " On, on : re- 
member Lucy." 

He was laid in the grave ; and young Henrich placed a Bible that 
he found lying near the fatal tree, and which they all believed must 
have been his, upon his breast. The young men were then about to 
throw upon him the kindred clay, when Frederick made a sign that 
they should forbear. 

"One moment!" he said. " I am a Christian, boys, though no 
professing one, and we have long lived where God's only temple was 
in the hearts of his creatures ; but I know how poor Edward felt, — I 
can guess what his wishes would be, and what he would do for me or 
mine were we laid low as he." In speaking the last words he stooped 
in such a manner as to permit his reaching the Bible ; and then stand- 
ing up, he read the most impressive of those touching passages ap- 
pointed for the burial of the dead. 

He then closed the volume, and laid it again upon the heart whose 
law it had ever been. 

The sods now laid on Edward's breast were watered by the tears of 
those who placed them there ; and if true affection and profoundest 
grief might be courted as giving solemnity to funeral rights, the obse- 
quies of Edward Bligh were indeed duly solemnised. 

This duty rendered to the dead, every thought again reverted to the 
poor prisoners. But before they could be released, it was necessary 
to decide what account was to be rendered to the unhappy Lucy re- 
specting her brother. 

"Tell her," said old Juno,withmore firmness than any otherappeared 
at that moment to possess,—" tell her at once, and with no lengthened 
tortures of doubt, mixing up hope with fear till the worn spirit has no 
strength left to bear the inevitable truth— tell her that her Edward 
Bligh is dead ; but tell her not that he was foully murdered." 



350 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

" But how can we account for it V said Frederick, who, though he 
perfectly agreed in adopting this pious fraud, felt as the moment ap- 
proached when he must tell the tale, that it might challenge questions 
he should be at a loss to answer. 

But from this embarrassment Phebe in a great measure relieved 
him, by stating that all those who saw poor Edward leap from the loft 
believed at the moment that he must have killed himself ; and though 
his having gone out of sight had certainly created some hope within 
them, yet their anxiety was such when she left them as certainly to 
prepare them greatly for the fatal news. 

" It is your duty to seek her, see her, and soothe her," said old 
Juno, turning from the grave around which this consultation had been 
held, — " but it is not mine. My duty lies elsewhere, and is of an- 
other kind. Farewell ! — farewell to all. Phebe, my poor girl, little 
Sally will never be to me what you have been ; but when I feel in- 
clined to fret for you, I will remember that it was I who redeemed you 
from the land of slaves, — and that will comfort me. Caesar, love her 
well, for she deserves it. Farewell to all !" 

She gave a parting wave with her faithful bamboo, that might have 
been counted mystical still, so much of sorrow and affection did she 
contrive to make it speak, and then walked off towards her home. 

The others proceeded directly to Clio's store. There was no longer 
any necessity for caution or concealment ; the villanous agents of a vil- 
lanous band had done their worst and would not molest them any 
farther. 

During the interval the events of which have been just narrated, 
Clio, under pretence of seeking some article she wanted, contrived to 
carry refreshment to the loft ; and great was her surprise at finding 
that two of the number she had left there had departed. In answer 
to the eager inquiries of their torturing anxiety, all she could tell them 
was, that the house of Reichland was burnt to the ground, and that the 
mob, or at least the greater part of them, had certainly retreated ; but 
that no one as yet had thought it prudent to approach the premises, lest 
some ruffians might be lingering there. 

11 The greatest difficulty in releasing the ladies from the shelter so 
kindly afforded them, was to discover how to do it without betraying 
Clio, who confessed that she should be " put out more than enough, if 
sister Whitlaw found out what she had been after doing and no leave 
asked." 

'■• I can tell you, Miss Clio," said Caesar, and it was the first word 
he had spoken since his eyes last looked upon the face of Edward, — 
"I can tell you how madam can be made to see and hear nothing but 
what you please she should." 

"That's a good nigger, then," replied Clio; "and what's your secret?" 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 351 

" Jest let my new master and this young gentleman" (pointing to 
Baron Hochland) — ' ' jest let them two pay madam a visit in her keep- 
ing-room, and she won't stir till they bids her." 

" That's no bad invention," said Clio, smiling. "I expect you 
know the Missas, young man." 

"But if I make this visit, who is it will tell Lucy? — I meant to 
have taken that painful duty myself." 

" Father! " said Karl in a whisper, "I will do it." 

It is surprising how much information may sometimes be derived 
from an accent. Frederick Steinmark learned as much from this 
whisper as if Karl had added to the words he spoke — M because I love 
her, father ! " 

"Do so, my dear son," he replied ; and the reply was also in an 
accent that said much. And the party separated according to the sug- 
gestion of Caesar. A passing slave was ordered to announce the visit of 
the two gentlemen to Mrs. Whitlaw; and as soon as they were ad- 
mitted, Clio preceded the others to the door of the warehouse, which 
she unlocked, and left them. 

The first glimpse of the faces which they had waited for so many 
hours in vain was hailed by a fervent exclamation of " Thank God !" 
from all. Hermann and Henrich walked straight to their mother and 
embraced her; while Karl, the heavy-laden Karl, approached slowly 
to Lucy, and, without daring to meet her eye, stretched out his hand 
to her in silence. 

She received it not ; — her eye glanced farther on, and, just at the 
entrance, having not wholly quitted the stair by which they had 
mounted, stood Phebe and Caesar. Silent and motionless, like statues 
cast in bronze, they stood, as if to tell in action the tale they dared not 
speak. It was enough, — Karl's dreadful embassy was needless; — 
"Edward ! oh, my Edward ! " cried the desolate girl, " have I lost 
him for ever, Phebe ?" 

Thus called upon, the weeping Phebe flew to the side of her former 
mistress, and kneeling down, wrapped her arms round her, while, re- 
membering with equal affection and good sense the words of Juno, she 
replied, "You have, my dearest mistress! — It has pleased God to 
take him. And oh, Miss Lucy! if he can look down from heaven, 
will it not be his best joy to see that you remember his lessons? — Say, 
His will be done 1 — say so, Miss Lucy, for his dear sake you have lost !" 

"His will be done !" cried Lucy, dropping on her knees beside her 
humble friend. — But — oh, God ! forgive me ! I am very, very 
wretched ! " 

Mary and Lotte were now beside her: caresses, and tears more 
soothing still, told the poor girl that bitter as was her trial, the God on 
whom her lost Edward had taught her to repose her faith had not left 



352 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

her desolate. Karl had stepped back when he found that the words 
he had so carefully prepared were unnecessary ; but he stood at no 
great distance, with his tearful eyes fixed on the group before him. 

Lucy knew and felt he was near her ; but, by a strange mixture 
and confusion of feelings, the more comfort she felt in knowing this, 
the less she could bear to see and notice him. Sorrow and Edward 
filled her heart, and she was jealous lest any thought should enter to 
share it. 

Happily for her, and for the friends whom Heaven had given her 
in her hour of need, they were called upon by imperious and most for- 
tunate necessity to exert themselves. 

The young man explained how they were obliged for the good Clio's 
sake to leave their present shelter instantly. On hearing this, they 
hastened to descend ; and when Clio had once more locked her ware- 
house, she ventured to ask them all to be seated in brother Whillaw's 
smoking-bower, and then sent to the keeping-room to inform Mr. 
Steinmark that some ladies wanted him. 

Mrs. Whillaw, all civility and smiles, accompanied the two gentle- 
men into the garden. Her presence seemed to be an almost intolerable 
restraint; but it might perhaps have been a blessing also, for when 
Frederick Steinmark approached Lucy with his heart swelling and a 
tear trembling in his eye, she only pressed in silence the hand he ex- 
tended to her, and that exchange of feeling which if unchecked would 
have very painfully agitated both, was spared. 

Mr. Steinmark had already accounted for his unwonted visit to Mrs. 
Whitlaw, by informing her that a riotous mob from Natchez having 
destroyed his house, he should be obliged if she would afford hospitality 
to him and his family while his servant prepared the waggon that was 
to convey them away. 

As by good luck old Whitlaw had this day passed "even more than 
his usual number of hours at the Eagle, the lady of Mount Etna was 
able to indulge her elegant predilection for good company by assuring 
Mr. Steinmark and the young "Lord," that "they were welcome to 
•stay jest as long as they liked." 

Nothing now, therefore, remained but to prepare Lucy for the ne- 
cessity of immediate departure, by telling her that the remains of her 
brother had already been interred by the hands of true and faithful 
friends. Frederick Steinmark even ventured to name the spot where 
he was left to his holy rest, and he showed his nice knowledge of a 
woman's heart by doing so. 

1 ' Does he lie there ? — in my dear Lotte's garden f said Lucy, 
melting into tears of softer sorrow^ than she had yet shed. " God 
bless you, sir ? — God for ever bless you !" 

Caesar had been once more despatched to bring the waggon and 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. $53 

horses which through the long hours of that dreadful day had re- 
mained nearly where they had been first stationed to receive the family 
and their packages on the lawn. 

The poor animals got a hasty feed of Mr. Jonathan Jefferson Whit- 
law's scorched corn, and were then led down to Mount Etna. Not a 
word had yet been said respecting the place of their destination. Had 
they departed in the morning, it would have been for Natchez ; and 
the family, if they thought about it at all, imagined that it must be 
Natchez still. But when Caesar returned, he begged, while the ladies 
with streaming eyes were once more taking their seats in the carriage, 
to speak a word in private to his master. 

" I have been thinking, sir," he said with great humility, " that it 
will not be well for you to go to Natchez ; — not that there will be 
danger, but news is sure to run, and many curious eyes'may follow 
you to the wharf ; and who knows, sir, but Miss Lucy might hear 
something said ?" 

" Enough! enough! Caesar — we will not go to Natchez. How far 
is it, do you know, to the next place above at which the boats will 
stop !" 

Caesar knew but little about it, but Clio found a Mount Etna slave 
who did ; and it was at length decided that they should immediately 
set out, and travel up the river till they reached it. All then that was 
now left to do ere quitting the region of their American home for ever, 
was to bid a long adieu to Clio ; and spite of the wide difference in edu- 
cation, habits, feelings, tastes, it was most truly affectionate, and to 
the end of Clio's long life there was no recollection that gave so much 
pleasure as that of having sheltered Lotte Steinmark and her family. 



CHAPTER Lffl. 

The dreadful scene which old Juno witnessed at Reichland, far from 
accelerating the weakness and infirmities of age, which now at length 
seemed rapidly falling on her, appeared to awaken and revive a great 
portion of her former energy. Not all her reverence for the character 
of Edward had taught her to be practically so much a Christian as to 
understand the doctrine of forgiveness of injuries. 

The hatred she had conceived for young Whitlaw, which originated 
in his barbarous abuse of the power given him over the slaves of Co- 
lonel Dart, had gone on increasing with almost every passing day; for 
in truth every passing day had added to the list of crimes her memory 

23 



354 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

stored up against him. His conduct to Selina — Her Selina, had 
swelled this catalogue to an extent that made her believe she was called 
upon by Heaven to be the instrument of ridding the earth of such a 
monster. It was, therefore, with no view to corrupt the principles of Ed- 
ward's Christian congregation that she had urged them to destroy him. 
In her heart she believed it would be a deed acceptable in the sight of 
God, and her disappointment brought no conviction to her mind that 
it was possible the humble people might be right, and herself wrong ; 
she only thought it was another proof of the ill luck that dogged her 
destiny. 

"I have shown them," she cried, "that the life of their apostle hangs 
upon the destruction of this villain, and yet the besotted fools think it 
their duty to preserve his life. This is not natural. Such reasoning is 
not in the common course of things, but comes from my evil hap." 
And never perhaps had the long-suffering old woman bewailed the 
rugged fortune that had followed her more bitterly than when she 
failed in this attempt. Never had she felt the utter worthlessness of 
herself and her existence so painfully, as when she wandered out into 
the forest on the morning of that eventful day, the miseries of which 
have been just recorded. She might have bemoaned in the language 
of Sampson, her 

■ » ' hopes all flat, 

Nature within her seemed 



In all her functions weary of herself. 

But the deed she had seen perpetrated by those whom she knew to 
be the agents of the being she abhorred, instead of adding to the weight 
of grief and horror that rested on her, once more revived her hope of 
living to avenge Selina's death. 

Instead of neglecting her health and strength as she had done since 
her return from New Orleans, she now did her very best to cherish 
both. She returned to her hut with the steady pace of one who would 
spare himself fatigue. The best and most cheering of her stores were 
drawn upon for her supper, and she went to bed praying to God for 
sleep, that her strength might be renewed, and that she might at last 
achieve the deed she was appointed to perform. 

It may be mentioned as a proof of the care she took to save those 
powers of mind and body she was about to draw upon, that though it 
was necessary for her again to visit those with whom she had always 
been accustomed to hold intercourse during the night, she now deter- 
mined to watch for an opportunity of speaking to them by day, lest a 
midnight vigil and a midnight walk might do her harm. 

It would be only retracing the same ground that has been gone over 
before, were Juno's second round of visits to her Christian friends to be 
described. Again she urged them to come forward like men and avenge 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 355 

the cause of the whole negro race, in destroying the most syste- 
matic and brutal enemy tbey had ever known ; and to this plea for 
vengeance she now added, with all the anticipated triumph of assured 
success, the history of Edward Bligh's atrocious murder. But it was 
still in vain : the male portion of poor Edward's congregation was very 
small, and the few sober-minded men of whom it was composed were 
in no danger of having their principles destroyed by the sophistry of 
Juno. 

But the purpose of her soul was too strongly fixed for this second 
failure to set it aside. She had already made up her mind what course 
to pursue should the friends of Edward again fail her, and it was only 
from a strange idea of doing his spirit pleasure that she endeavoured to 
avenge his death by the hands of his own people. These had shrunk 
from the good work, and she turned to agents of stronger fabric and less 
tender conscience. 

Among the five hundred slaves of Paradise Plantation, there were not 
wanting some who had heavy cause to execrate the name of Whillaw, 
and among whom, as Juno well knew, his recent accession to the si- 
tuation of their actual legal master had been celebrated the night after 
it happened — when she had shut herself up in splenetic despair within 
her hut — by a chorus of muttered curses. 

With her view of the nature of the deed which it was the only re- 
maining object of her life to accomplish — believing it, as she truly did, 
to be just and holy, she would far rather have entrusted its execution 
to those who had been the disciples and followers of the martyr than to 
such as had never attended his ministry. But having failed in this, she 
once more set forth, after the hours of work were over; and now di- 
recting her steps, not exactly to the most holy, but the most wronged 
and the most vindictive, she soon found herself in the command, if she 
wished it, of a force sufficient in strength of purpose and in strength of 
hand to have executed the welcome task she proposed to them a hundred 
times over. 

Having thus succeeded to her heart's desire in this part of her task, 
Juno, cheered in spirits and perfectly composed in mind, made a quiet 
friendly visit to Peggy. 

She found her sitting alone in the covered space between her wash- 
house and her sleeping-room, and weeping sadly enough, though not 
bitterly, for the departure of her happy " glorious" Phebe. Of all the 
people in the world, Juno was the one whose conversation at this mo- 
ment was likely to be the most welcome to her. It was she who had 
obtained this glorious lot for her child ; it was she who had seen the 
last of her before her departure ; and it was she who could best relate 
the horrors of the dreadful day at Reichland, of which rumours had 
reached the slaves, but of which they as yet knew nothing certainly. 

28* 



356 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

After this tranquil friendly visit was over, Juno repaired to her home 
and passed a night of almost unbroken rest. 

The following morning, just at the hoar when she should be sure to 
find her new master enjoying the luxuries of his almost alfresco break- 
fast, the old slave repaired to the mansion-house of Paradise Plantation. 

With her accustomed licensed boldness, she presented herself in the 
portico before the windows of his breakfast-room; and there, as she 
expected, sat the great and happy man. His table was spread with 
luxury so abundant, that it was evident that the pleasures of eating were 
not with him addressed to the palate alone, but that the eyes and nose 
were expected to lake a share in it. 

So many accidental circumstances had linked Juno in his memory 
with the most happy moments of his fortunate career, that Whitlaw 
was fully persuaded she had influenced them. Had Clio, who as he 
knew would joyfully have shed her blood to do him service, thus sud- 
denly appeared befcvje him, it was not in his nature to greet her with 
as much observance and respect as he now did Juno. — Juno, who, 
though he knew it not, thirsted for his life as greedily as a famished 
wolf for the daintiest morsel ever smelt in his ravenous dreams, and 
who in his soul he believed to be, though friendly for her hellish pur- 
poses to him — as foul a witch as ever distilled adders "caught in the 
eclipse" — Juno was welcomed by him with a gracious smile, and with 
hospitable offers of whatever she might prefer from his variously-spread 
table. 

"Rum!" replied Juno, brandishing her bamboo with all her pris- 
tine mysticism of gesticulation. "Master of all ! — rum can add 
power to will " 

With his own hand he presented her the glass, which she emptied, 
after pronouncing in a tone of great sublimity, 

" Health to the master of all ! — such health as follows the gifted 
prayers of Juno !" 

Whitlaw as he listened to her seemed to feel the comfort of youth, 
health, and vigour in every iimb ; and again he smiled upon her 
gratefully. 

*'And what brings you to me to-day, Juno ?" said he, making her 
a sign to seat herself as before in the portico. " I'll engage now, that 
you are come to give me some profitable counsel, — or to tell me some- 
thing, maybe, that I ought to know." 

"I shall begin to think my master has learnt his poor slave's 
trade," replied Juno with a grim smile. "Have the green birds told 
you that V 

" Not exactly the green birds, Juno, for they never talk to me but by 
your help. However, I have known you for a spell, Juno; and that 
is enough to help a shrewd man to make a shrewd guess." 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 357 

11 Right, right, right, — a shrewd man you are, master of all ! and 
there's the secret that binds old Juno to love vou as she does. Those 
who consult the spirits of the air love shrewdness such as yours ; it 
helps them famously." 

"Well, then, I have guessed right, have I ? — What is it, Juno? 
no mutiny among the slaves, I hope?" 

"While Juno lives," replied the old woman, nodding her head 
significantly, — " While Juno lives — and God may do what God has 
done— and the years of Juno may pass the years of man — and her 
thread of life may still be spun on, and on, as long as yours, master of 
all, — and while old Juno lives, no mutiny shall rise among the slaves 
but you shall know of it by times." 

" That's well, Juno — and you shall be paid for it." 

" I shall, I shall — my heart will pay me, you may trust to that. 
And now, what have I got to tell you?" 

Here Juno rose up from her seat, and fixing her eyes upon his face, 
she entered the room and walked close up to him. Then in a whisper, 
that could not have been heard at three steps distance, she said, 

" I cannot tell you now, I cannot tell you here; — but I will tell 
you ; and when I do, then you will know how much you owe to 
Juno ?" 

"But when can you, Juno? I'm sure I'll go any where rather 
than disoblige you. — I expect you are thinking we may be overheard 
here?" he continued in a whisper as low as her own. "D'ye know of 
any listeners among 'em ? — any ill blood in the house, Juno?" 

" It is better that you should hear all I have got to say when I may 
speak and not care who hears me. Will the master of all come to 
Juno's poor hut before the slaves are driven forth to their work to- 
morrow morning ?" 

" That's d lion early, Juno," replied the great man. "When I 

wasn't the owner myself, you know, 'twas another guess sort of thing; 
— and then I was early and late too sometimes. But now, you see, I 
like to indulge a spell when I wake : — 'tis the best part of lying a-bed, 
I expect, when one's eyes are open, and one knows for certain that 
one is there, and as snug as feathers and fine linen can make one. — 
Can't I come later in the day, Juno?" 

" The master of all can come when he will, and go when he will, 
and do what he will ; but woe will come to the master, and woe will 
come to the slave in this matter, if his steps are seen drawing near to 
the dwelling of Juno." 

"But the best way not to be seen would be for me to come jest in 
full working-time. The overseers will take care that no slaves are 
straggling then ; and I need not even cross the fields, you know,, for 



35S LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

I can ride round info the woods, and so come to you from behind the 
hut." 

" That is true," replied Juno; " and if you come at that time, mid- 
night and darkness could not more surely keep the eyes of slaves from 
you. — But have none eyes save slaves? — How many others are there, 
who may be here, or there, according to their will, and none have 
power to slop them ?" 

"Not slaves! — Good God! — do you fear the overseers, Juno? — 
I'll come without fail, jest before sun-rise. — But say one word, — do 
you suspect my overseers ?" 

' ' One is not all — and even two are not many. But fear not for any 
of them! — Come five minutes before sun-rise, and you shall be told 
all, — lo the last word, — lhat it is necessary for you to hear." 

" Take this glass of rum, Juno," said Whillaw in a tone that spoke 
both gratitude and triumph. "The rascals! — if they are niggers, 
I know how to deal with 'em ; and if they are whites, there's more 
Lynch-law to be had for the asking." 

Juno, nothing loath, look the glass, and holding it to her lips, said, 
"May your coming lo poor Juno but keep you as safe from every 
future harm as she would have you, and you never shall have cause to 
fear treachery more !" 

She then emptied the glass, waved her farewell, and departed. 



CHAPTER LIV. 

It will hardly be doubted lhat considerably before the sun was 
visible above the horizon, on the following morning, old Juno w 7 as up 
and ready to receive her expected visitor. But not the slightest trace 
of hurry or agitation was perceptible in her countenance or manner, 
and not for many years had she appeared so perfectly exempted from 
weakness or suffering of any kind. 

She walke'd forth from her hut and turned her eyes towards the east. 
The short twilight was rapidly brightening into day, when the sound 
of a horse's feet behind her dwelling made her start. She forgot that 
he was one of those who professed never to walk when he could ride, 
and for a moment she feared that their interview was interrupted'; but 
at the same instant she turned her head and beheld Whillaw. 

" The wise and shrewd are always punctual," observed Juno, 
making a respectful reverence. " Will it please the master of all to 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 359 

seat himself on this log? — The air is fresh and pleasant here, and it may 
be that the hut of Juno is not roomy enough." 

" It don't matter much, I expect," replied Whillaw, " as to where 
we bide while you says out your say, J uno. Tell me at once, my good 
woman, what danger is it that threatens?" 

" I will answer all your questions, as in duty bound," replied Juno, 
placing herself before him; " but first the business that brought you 
here makes it right and fitting that you should answer some few of 
mine. I would not willingly mistake or blunder in such a thing as 
this, and I should like to have your own voice upon it." 

11 Well, then, begin, in God's name — and be quick, will you? — I 
hate being out in the damp of the morning ; I don't want to shake, I 
promise you." 

" If you should shake, Mr. Whitlaw, the fit will not hold you long : 
I know a cure for ague." 

" But these questions, Juno, — what is it that you want to ask 
of me?" 

" Will you promise to answer all I ask?" 

" To be sure — why not?— -come, ask away." 

" Have you ever caused a negro child to be flogged before the eyes 
of Colonel Dart solely to promote his amusement by its gestures and 
its cries?" 

"What the devil can any overseer have to do with that?" said 
Whitlaw, colouring. 

"You shall understand the meaning of all presently. Did you 
ever cause a negro-woman to be flogged before your eyes till she died, 
and then report to the colonel that she had died in childbirth?" 

" 'Tis over late for 'em to do any mischief to me on that score," said 
Jonathan Jefferson with a toss of the head. "If I did, I expect I 
killed my own slave at any rate ; — the loss is mine, and not the over- 
seer's, let Mm be who he will." 

"Did you, or did you not," continued Juno, " report falsely to the 
colonel what his nephew said of him, thereby securing his inheritance 
to yourself?" 

" And I should like to see the overseer that would fault that! — I 
tell you what, old lady, I don't altogether approbate this style of 
talking to me, and I dont't see which way it's to turn to my profit; — 
so quit, if you please, and come to the point at once." 

" Be not so hasty with your good friend, Juno," said she; " I have 
very nearly done, for I find not that your answers throw much new 
light upon the matter : — I'll ask but one question more; — Did Selina 
Croft and did Edward Bligh owe their early deaths to you? Mon- 
ster! — they did ! — " exclaimed the old woman, raising her voice to 
the highest pitch; "monster, they did! — and thou shalt pay for 



360 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

it, if thy craven blood is the last that ever sinks into the earth for 
vengeance!" 

Whitlaw turned pale as death. He looked wildly round him ; but 
perceiving only the withered hag who, trembling with impotent fury, 
uttered these revilings with the look and voice of a maniac, he roused 
himself from the terror that had seized upon him, and hastily turned 
towards the spot where he had left his horse. But as he did so, the 
idea occurred to him that this old woman, mad as he now believed her, 
might do him great injury by repeating the tales too plainly stamped 
upon her disordered mind, and glancing his eye at the same instant 
over her shaking and diminutive form, he darted towards her with 
extended hands, exclaiming, "Accursed hag!— but I will stop thy 
breath first!" 

Ere he reached her, Juno raised her bamboo to her mouth and drew 
from it a loud shrill whistle. Whitlaw at once felt that he was lost. 
As a last desperate effort, however, he sprang towards his horse, and 
had nearly caught the rein, when the bushes beside him suddenly 
seemed to live, and four powerful negroes rushed upon him, who in 
an instant bore him to the ground. Every arm in that unequal conflict 
was braced by the consciousness of some well-remembered wrong, 
and many was the heavy stroke and desperate slab given, rather to 
afford vent to the long-smothered hatred of the avengers than to ensure 
the death of their victim ; for Whitlaw had breathed his last long 
before the assassins had ceased to strike. 

The ghastly spectacle wrought no change in the feelings of Juno. 
She steadily watched the death-agony, and then raising her eyes to 
heaven, exclaimed, " Selina ! — my own Selina ! — Edward ! — saint and 
martyr of our wretched race! — old Juno has avenged ye !" 

Then turning to the executioners, she said, ' ' Let not the blood stain 
the ground farther than needs must. — For me it matters not ; but for 
your sakes, good fellows, it is needful that this righteous deed be hid. 
— Stay!" she added; " wait for me a moment." 

She entered her hut, and presently returned with a bundle of rags. 
" There — now bind him up. I have a vault ready for him. It was 
my child he killed, and it was my hands that hollowed out his grave. 
So, so, do the work steadily and well — there's no hurry yet. You 
shall bury him where, if you keep your own secret, mortal man will 
never be likely to find him ; and you will have no more to fear than if 
you'd killed a buzzard and left it rotting in a ditch." 

She then again retreated to the hut, while the men in the best man- 
ner they could obeyed her orders ; and having remained there for a 
few minutes, returned again, saying, " Now lift him up and follow 
me. The tomb is ready." 

The four men raised their common foe between them and bore him 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WH1TLAW. 301 

into the hut, where, to their surprise, yawned what seemed a deep and 
ample grave. Not a word was spoken by either of them ; but as Juno 
with her own hand fastened down the trap-door that covered him, 
she said, "There lie, and rest from thy sins ! I may have spared thee 
many. — Could I shut in his evil spirit here," she said, turning to the 
men, "as I have done his hateful carcass, I should be a better friend 
than the mother that bore him. But that, poor wretch, is better luck 
than he can hope for — he'll fare wor^e elsewhere than we have used 
him here." 

All traces of this terrible deed were soon effaced : the four slaves, 
their hands and faces washed in the nearest brook, were ready to obey 
the overseer's call, and went with their comrades to their daily work 
safe and unchallenged. The bedstead of old Juno was left standing 
in its usual corner ; but her mattress and her blankets, and herself, 
were all removed before night to the dwelling of Peggy, where she was 
readily permitted to install herself; for heavy as was the loss her pa- 
tronage brought with it, the grateful mother could never forget how 
much her Phebe owed her. 

It was just two days afterwards that the old woman, who, let who 
might be her master, be it any one or no one, still rambled where she 
would, contrived to find herself upon the wharf at Natchez just as a 
fine steam-boat coming down the river, drew near it, to leave and re- 
ceive passengers and to take in wood. 

No sooner had she stopped than, as usual, a full stream made up of 
crew and passengers poured out Of her upon the shore. Juno waited 
patiently till this rush was over, and then by the help of her bamboo 
got safely on board. She knew the geography of a steam-boat as well 
as that of Paradise Plantation, and presently found herself just where 
she wished to be ; namely, in the presence of Csesar and his Phebe. 

An exclamation of joyful surprise broke from the young couple, 
which was answered by a friendly nod ; and then came the question, 
for the purpose of asking which she was there : ' ' How is she, Phebe? 
— how does she bear up?" 

"Belter, better, dear Juno! — better than you could hope. And 
must it not be Providence, Juno, that has put her where she is? She 
could not have the heart to go on fretting her dear life away w ith such 
kind creatures standing by to watch her. And that's why she's better. 
She thinks it right not to sink down before it, and so she will not sink. 
I know her better than anybody else can know her now. But that 
won't be for long, for there's not one of them all, except it is young 
Master Sigismond, whose head is full of our Miss Lotte, that seems 
from morning to night to think of any earthly thing but her." 

"Yes!" said Juno musingly, "it is the will of God. His will, 



362 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

Phebe, is sometimes shown where it is hard to trace it. But where 
goodness is plainly seen — goodness, all-blessing goodness, — then, 
Phebe, we know that it has pleased the Almighty to unveil his work, 
and'we no longer see him darkly." 

Phebe listened wilh reverence to words of which the felt the truth 
at her heart. Then followed some talk of Peggy and her little ones ; 
and it was with great satisfaction that the poor girl heard of Juno's new 
arrangement. " It is so right for all of you !" said she; " who is there 
can talk of me to mother like you, Juno?-— and who knows so well as 
mother bow to make the cakes just as you like them V 

Their conversation was interrupted by Caesar, who having shown his 
face at the door of the great cabin, and announced to Hermann, who 
stood near it, that old Juno was aboard, had been immediately com- 
missioned by the whole Steinmark party to invite her to come and speak 
to them upon the gallery. She obeyed, but her eye only sought out 
Lucy. The mourning girl saw this, and notwithstanding her earnest 
effort to prevent it, the tears would come. 

"Forgive me!" said Juno with more real humility than she was 
in the habit of feeling before any one ; ' ' but to look at you once more 
— to see you look, Miss Lucy, as if you would live to reward those 
who love you — it was for this I came : will you forgive me?" 

" Indeed, Juno," replied Lucy, " I thank you for your love; — and 
tell poor Peggy that I am better than she or I either would have be- 
lieved possible : and tell her, too, that Phebe will be a very happy girl, 
— for those who have no feelings in the world but goodness have the 
care of her." 

This was Lucy Bligh's last farewell to those of her native land. Old 
Juno received the cordial good wishes of all the party. As they watched 
her retreat from the boat to the wharf, the paddles began to play, and 
in another five minutes they had lost sight of Natchez and its green 

bluff for ever. 

* * * * * * 

A very few words may suffice to trace the most important events 
that have since befallen the persons with whom the reader has become 
acquainted in the course of the foregoing pages. 

The wishes of the Steinmark family seemed to have power to fill 
their sails, for swift and prosperous was the voyage that carried them 
to the port of Hamburgh. The entire novelty of the scene, and of all 
the external circumstances in which she was placed— together with 
the tender, watchful affection of the family who had become the whole 
world to her, joined to the sincere and really Christian efforts of her 
own mind, had all done much for Lucy. The image of Edward was 
as deeply impressed and as fondly cherished as ever; but it was no 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. Mi 

longer the only one, and before the beautiful new country, with all its 
rousing interests of history and romance, which was to be traversed 
in the way to Westphalia was passed over, Lucy scrupled not to 
confess to her heart that life might still have happy hours in store for 
her. 

The reunion of the long-parted brothers was a spectacle that no one 
could contemplate without feeling that it was a blessing to be near them. 
A patriarchal circle soon filled the ample castle of the good Westpha- 
lian baron ; and that Lotte had a castle of her own, and therefore could 
not always and for ever make part of it, seemed to be the only defect 
he found in the arrangement. But, like every other member of the 
family, he soon learned to think that though it might have been belter 
to possess them both, yet that Lucy could supply her place belter than 
any other fair specimen of womankind in the whole world ; and if, in 
the division of his great wealth, his nephew Karl appeared the favou- 
rite, it was pretty generally understood that this arose from the great 
probability there appeared to be, that, through his means, his favourite 
Lucy Bligh would speedily become his niece. 

The ultimate fate of Clio was as unexpected as it was singular, and 
must not be forgotten. Whether it were that the unfortunate Jonathan 
Jefferson Whillaw, in the new and intoxicating delight of finding him- 
self unexpectedly a man of enormous wealth, felt disposed from the 
very first hour to use all the power and privilege it gave him, or whether 
some strange and unconscious prescience of his coming fate led him to 
prepare for it, certain it is that within twenty-four hours of his having 
received the deed which endowed him with Colonel Dart's great posses- 
sions, he composed and signed another, duly witnessed and executed, 
wherein, without mentioning the name of any other living being, he 
bequeathed it all, as well as everything else he might die possessed of, 
to Clio Whitlaw, spinster, his dear and well-beloved aunt. 

For several days, the unaccountable absence of the new proprietor 
from his home and his estales did not creale any very general surprise. 
His father thought that he was treating himself with "a go" at the 
gaming-table ; his mother-in-law, that it was likely enough he had 
fallen in love, and was gone to bring home a lady to surprise them; 
while his unconscious heiress fancied, when she remembered, as she 
was very apt to do, the days of Mohanna Creek, that he was only treat- 
ing himself wilh a little pleasure on board a steam-boat. 

When weeks and months, however, had worn away, and he was 
no more seen or heard of, Jonathan Whitlaw senior began to think 
that it might be as well to look over his papers, to ascertain if possible 
if he had any affairs likely to take him to a distance. 

This examination brought to light the will ; and legal opinions ap- 



364 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF 

pearing in favour of itsbeing atonce examined, from the possibility that 
it might throw some information upon his mysterious disappearance, 
it was done, and the wonderful discovery made, that if indeed he were 
dead, " Cli Whillaw, what always served in the store at Mount Etna, 
was the richest heiress in Louisiana." 

The very existence of the will itself, made so immediately after he 
had the power to do it, persuaded many to believe that he must have had 
some reason to know that he should not live long; but nothing in the 
world could induce Clio to believe in his death. She immediately 
showed more wisdom, and even knowledge, than the generality of 
people gave her credit for, by the manner in which she arranged every- 
thing, and took care that allshouldbe prosperous, safe, and in readiness 
against her Jonathan returned ; but as to appropriating one cent of the 
rich inheritance to herself, she would not hear of it. 

.The last act of old Juno's life was to settle this knotty point for the 
good Clio . Having contrived to converse with her on the subject, 
and finding in truth that it was probable she would live and die 
without benefiting by what it was likely she would make a blessing to 
many, Juno took care that the bones of Jonathan Jefferson Whitlaw, 
clad in the dress he was known to have been in the habit of wearing, 
and moreover with sundry identifying letters and papers in his pocket, 
should be found at no great distance from his mansion. That he should 
have been murdered appeared to create but little surprise in any one — 
his notorious cruelty and tyranny rendered the event extremely natu- 
ral ; to poor Clio her wealth came stained by tears. 

Time, however, softens every human sorrow, and Clio is now 
living on one of the finest estates in Louisiana, as happy as the sharing 
kindness and munificence to all the world can and must make a heart as 
generous as hers. 

It was one among many proofs of thoughtful attention on the part of 
the Steinmarks towards Lucy, that from the lime they arrived at their 
home, Phebe was appointed to be her especial servant; and it was that 
reason probably, among some others, which made both Mr. and Mrs. 
Caesar Bush declare, that " if heaven was for all the good a happier 
place than Germany was for niggers, it must be an unaccountable fine 
place, indeed." 

After seven years of faithful service in the Steinmark family, Caesar 
and his wife contrived to realise a sum sufficient to purchase the free- 
dom of Peggy, who was at an age that made the sum a small one; 
and Madame Karl Steinmark, ne'eBUgh, furnished what was neces- 
sary for the expenses of her voyage. Her two younger children were 
already wivesand mothers under the gentle sway of "Miss Clio Whit- 
law;" and it was, therefore, with almost unmixed pleasure thatfthe 



JONATHAN JEFFERSON WHITLAW. 365 

good woman joined her darling Phebe, and was installed as laundress- 
in-chief of Ihe baron's noble caslle . 

Frederick Steinmark and his Mary, though they had never through 
the tedious course of their long exile exchanged a murmur at their lot, 
now confessed, as they saw the circle of happy faces around them, that 
Europe was the soil for Europeans, and that there was some comfort 
in living in a land in which, let a man sing what he will about "home," 
there is no danger that on looking round they should see tears standing 
in every eye. 



THE END„ 



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